The Russian Foreign Ministry advised Armenia to hold a referendum before applying to the European Union.
A referendum in Armenia on joining the European Union should precede the submission of the application, Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Alexander Pankin said in an interview with TASS.
"At the initiative of [Prime Minister Nikol] Pashinyan's team, the search for Armenia's place in the European Union has led to a paradoxical situation when real benefits from participation in the Eurasian Economic Union are used to promote the ephemeral idea of moving to another integration block," the diplomat stated.
In his opinion, "the natural logical result under the current circumstances will be a referendum in which the residents of Armenia will express their will, as stipulated in the country's constitution, on the subject of its continued integration."
"Furthermore, logic dictates that a referendum should first be held and the people asked, and then an official request be submitted to Brussels, and not the other way around, and this is what the Armenian leadership has been publicly insisting on recently," Pankin noted.
The deputy minister explained: "If the request is submitted, no one will be interested in the people's opinion."
"For the purpose of an objective understanding of the clear benefits that Armenia received as a member of the Eurasian Economic Union, and the possible losses from the severance of integration ties, a report prepared following a joint statement by the presidents of Belarus, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan and Russia on the possible consequences of the suspension of the European Union treaty in Russia was recently presented to the public to the Minister of Foreign Affairs of Armenia to the European Union. the federation.
He clarified that the scenario described in the report "is considered an extreme measure in order to prevent risks to economic security and damage to the member states of the Union".
"Whether it will be implemented depends on the readiness of the Armenian leadership to remove the concerns that have arisen among the other member states of the Eurasian Economic Union," Pankin said.