Membership in the Russian-led Eurasian Economic Union (EEU) is “very beneficial” for Armenia and its struggling economy, an adviser to Russia’s President Vladimir Putin insisted on Friday.
Speaking to RFE/RL’s Armenian service (Azatutyun.am) in Yerevan, the official, Sergey Glazyev, also claimed that Azerbaijan’s accession to the trade bloc would facilitate a peaceful resolution of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict.
Glazyev argued that by being part of the EEU Armenia is in a position to attract foreign investors interested in tariff-free access to the vast Russian market. “Armenia has unique relationships in the world,” he said. “We know the pervasive influence of the Armenian Diaspora. We know the competitive advantages enjoyed by Armenian business circles in various countries of the world, including those such as America that are now waging an economic war against us.”
“So for international investors Armenia is a very well-known point of entry into the Eurasian market,” Glazyev said, echoing statements by Armenian leaders.
Pro-Western critics of the Armenian government say that EEU membership on the contrary hampers the country’s economic development. They argue that economic growth did not accelerate after Armenia joined the bloc in January 2015. Some of its macroeconomic indicators have actually worsened since then, they say.
“I will allow myself to express the view that if Armenia had not been part of the EEU the situation would have been worse,” countered Glazyev. He said that the Russian Central Bank’s tight monetary policy is primarily to blame for recent years’ economic downturn in Russia which has adversely affected Armenia and other EEU member states.
The Kremlin adviser, who deals with post-Soviet economic integration championed by Moscow, has long advocated stronger government intervention in the economy. He is also known for his hardline views on the West.
Speaking on the sidelines of a Russian-Armenian intergovernmental forum in Yerevan, Glazyev also made a case for bringing more ex-Soviet republics, including Armenia’s arch-foe Azerbaijan, into the EEU.
“The enlargement of the EEU is a natural process because … all countries in the post-Soviet space co-existed for centuries, know each other well, know how to deal with each other, use Russian as a language of mutual communication, and share a common ancient culture of joint activity and joint building of huge empires. We jointly built the Russian Empire, the Soviet one, and can well build our future for the next 100 years,” he said.
Glazyev at the same time dismissed as “utter nonsense” claims that Putin’s “Eurasian integration” drive is aimed at eventually restoring the Soviet Union. He insisted that the EEU will remain an “economic union” of sovereign nations.
Glazyev also said: “If we want to have peace, mutual assistance and beneficial cooperation that would also help to end political problems, then we should integrate the entire Caucasus into the EEU.”
“I believe that if we form a common economic space, if long-term cooperative relationships emerge between companies and people, if our entrepreneurs do business together, then we will strengthen mutual trust, the economy will start getting ahead of politics,” he went on. Azerbaijan’s membership in the bloc would therefore create “additional possibilities” of resolving the Karabakh conflict, he said.
Azerbaijan’s leadership has shown little interest in joining the EEU so far.
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