Armenia's accession to the Eurasian Economic Union is being protracted because of Azerbaijan, primarily, Stepan Safaryan, a political scientist, a member of Heritage opposition party told ArmInfo.
Prime Minister Hovik Abrahamyan told reporters Thursday that changes may be made in the time schedule of Armenia's accession to the EAEU. Actually, Safaryan said, Russia is so far failing to soften Baku's tough stance on the given issue, though
Yerevan and Moscow cover up the problem. In addition, he thinks Armenia will become a burden for the 'customs troika.' President of Belarus already hinted at that in April.
"Lukashenko indirectly accused Russia for pushing Armenia into the CU. He hinted that the 'customs troika' countries must also benefit from Armenia's accession to the CU," Safaryan said. He drew attention at the latest statement by First Deputy Prime Minister of Russia Igor Shuvalov, who declared in Sochi on 23 June that Armenia's accession to the EAEU would require negotiations with the WTO for compensation in favor of the partner-countries of the Organization.
"This is the same as to withdraw Armenia from the WTO. Actually, Russia leads the relations of Armenia and the West to the breaking point. It turns out that we will have no benefit from the EAEU and will have to pay the WTO partner-countries for the damage caused. I don't think that Russia is ready to provide Armenia with customs privileges despite Serzh Sargsyan's June 17 statement. Shuvalov hinted that Astana and Minsk are against any concessions to Armenia," Safaryan said.