The summit scheduled for December 25 was expected to be held in Yerevan at the end of Armenia’s one-year rotating presidency in the Russian-led trade bloc. A senior aide to Russian President Vladimir Putin said on Tuesday that it will take place in Saint Petersburg instead.
“At the request of the Armenian side, the meeting is organized on Russian territory, even though the meeting will be chaired by Armenian Prime Minister Pashinian,” Yury Ushakov told journalists.
Pashinian’s office on Wednesday did not explain that request cited by Ushakov. Economy Minister Gevorg Papoyan likewise refused to comment on it when he was approached by journalists.
Armenian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Ani Badalian said, for her part, that EEU regulations do not stipulate that summits of the bloc must necessarily take place in a presiding member state. Badalian told RFE/RL’s Armenian Service that the decision to hold the next summit in Saint Petersburg was made by the EEU leaders at their last meeting held in Moscow in May.
“It will be a second EEU summit not held in Armenia during Armenia’s presidency this year,” said Artur Khachatrian, a senior member of the main opposition Hayastan alliance. “It’s a blow to the reputation of our country.”
Khachatrian suggested that the Armenian authorities were reluctant to receive Putin more than one year after controversially ratifying the founding treaty of the International Criminal Court (ICC) also known as the Rome Statute. Earlier in 2023, the ICC issued an arrest warrant for Putin over war crimes allegedly committed during Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
Moscow, which vehemently denies the accusations, said at the time that Yerevan’s “unfriendly” move will cause further damage to Russian-Armenian relations. Pashinian and other Armenian leaders insisted that it is not directed at Putin. But they have still not explicitly said whether the Russian leader will be arrested in case of visiting Armenia.
In September this year, Putin visited Mongolia, another signatory to the Rome Statute. The authorities there ignored the ICC’s arrest warrant, prompting criticism from the European Union.
“The Armenian authorities probably don’t want to come under such pressure now,” Khachatrian said in reference to the EU reaction to Mongolia’s stance.
Pashinian’s administration has been seeking to reorient Armenia towards the West in response to what it sees as Russia’s failure to honor security commitments to the South Caucasus state. In a televised interview late last week, Pashinian again did not rule out an Armenian bid to join the EU.
Ushakov confirmed on Tuesday that the Armenian premier will not attend this week’s summit of another Russian-led organization, the Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO).
Pashinian has frozen Armenia’s membership in the CSTO and said it will eventually leave the military alliance altogether. He has so far been careful not to question his country’s continued membership in the EEU, which gives Armenian exporters tariff-access to the Russian market.
Russia accounted for 41 percent of Armenia’s foreign trade in January-September 2024, compared with the EU’s 7.2 percent share in the total. Russia is also Armenia’s principal supplier of natural gas and nuclear fuel. The price of Russian gas for the country has long been set well below international market-based levels.