The Armenian government has not condemned the Russian invasion, underscoring its close political, military and economic ties with Moscow. It abstained last week from voting on a UN General Assembly resolution that demanded an immediate withdrawal of Russian troops from Ukraine.
Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian said on March 3 that Yerevan is “deeply saddened” by the war and hopes that Russian-Ukrainian negotiations “will produce results.”
Khachatrian, who will be sworn in as Armenia’s new, largely ceremonial head of state on Sunday, echoed this stance before attending his last cabinet meeting in his capacity as minister of high-technology industry.
“We all should hope and do everything so that this war ends as soon as possible,” he told journalists. “We know very well what it means.”
Khachatrian would not be drawn on economic consequences of the West’s crippling sanctions against Russia. He said only that their precise impact on Armenia is difficult to predict at the moment.
Armenia - Vahagn Khachatrian, March 2, 2022.
“We just need to prepare our system, especially the financial system,” added the 62-year-old economist elected as president by the Armenian parliament last week. The government and businesses should not brace themselves for a worst-case scenario, he said.
Russia is Armenia’s number one trading partner and export market. Russian-Armenia trade totaled $2.6 billion last year.
Officials in Yerevan admit that the Western sanctions will likely hit hard Armenian exports to Russia as well as remittances sent home by Armenians working there. They also expect a further surge in food prices in Armenia.
The South Caucasus country imports a large part of its wheat, cooking oil and other basic foodstuffs from Russia.