Moscow: Armenia being drawn into "European integration adventure"

Russia hopes Armenians will objectively assess the risks of the country’s European integration course, which Moscow believes they are being drawn into, a senior Russian Foreign Ministry official said.

Vladislav Maslennikov, director of the ministry’s Department of European Problems, told Russian media that the final choice of Armenia’s development path remained with its citizens.

He said he hoped they would “objectively assess the danger” of what he described as an “European integration” adventure.

Armenia’s parliament approved a law in March 2025 to begin the process of joining the European Union. Russia has previously said that simultaneous membership of the EU customs union and the Eurasian Economic Union (EAEU) was impossible.

Russian President Vladimir Putin has said that Armenia’s adoption of the law effectively amounted to a declaration of its withdrawal from the EAEU. He urged Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan to put the issue to the Armenian people and settle whether the country should belong to the EAEU or the EU.

Pashinyan said the issue had not yet reached a stage at which a referendum could be held.

By Aghakazim Guliyev