Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan has provided details from a telephone conversation with Russian President Vladimir Putin. According to him, the conversation was not only about the bill at the start of the process of Armenia’s accession to the EU, “There was a conversation about current affairs in the EAEU and our bilateral statements.” According to the Prime Minister, the conversation was about the following: “It is a fact that Armenian citizens have collected more than 50,000 signatures and have put forward a specific question to the National Assembly and the government, which corresponds to the statements of the Armenian government. And I have expressed my conviction that people will collect both 50,000 signatures and 300,000 signatures. And if the National Assembly rejects the law’s adoption, we should hold a referendum after some time because the constitutional regulations are clear.” According to him, why such perceptions have been formed among Armenian citizens is also a matter on the agenda of Armenian-Russian relations. “Our conversation has been and continues to be about this.”
According to him, Russia has some concerns regarding this process: “Our conversation and our relations have never been and will never be in the language of threats. This is a conversation and negotiation; we are expressing positions. The fact that Russia has certain concerns is obvious. The fact that we also have certain concerns regarding Russia’s positions and policies is also a fact. The fact that we continue the dialogue with Russia is also a fact. The fact that we will continue to deepen relations with the EU is also a fact.”
He stressed that steps should not be taken within the framework of the EAEU that would call into question its content: “There have already been steps that, in our assessment, have called into question the CSTO’s operational capacity, and that is also the reason why Armenia has frozen its participation in the organization.”
