By Vestnik Kavkaza
Armenia signed the Eurasian Economic Union Treaty at the Minsk summit at the end of last week. It is obvious that the signing of the document is only the beginning of Yerevan’s path towards adaption to the integration mechanism.
Mikhail Krotov, an advisor of the State Duma speaker, believes that “it is too early to talk about full-fledged membership, some inner state procedures need to be taken. The fact that the triplet has turned into a quartet is a very important and a remarkable event… Armenia’s joining the EaEU cannot be narrowed down to solely economic issues. It is a continuation of the geopolitical choice people of Armenia made many years ago to be with Russia.”
According to Krotov, “Armenian authorities – the government and the parliament – have shown wonders of organized nature in fulfilling over 280 points of the road map to join the EaEU. Everything has been fulfilled perfectly, the optimal scheme has been implemented, in other words, for the first time we have a model when a country without common borders with other members of the Customs Union will take part in it nonetheless. It is very important for a country to fix political stability on the path of the Eurasian vector of Armenia’s development. Belarus, Kazakhstan and Russia are the most politically stable countries and the most successful. The GDP per capita at par with the consuming potential is $22,500 in Russia, $20,500 in Kazakhstan, $16,500 in Belarus. Comparatively, Ukraine and Moldova have a GDP per capita of $8,000 and $4,000.”
Oleg Noginsky, the chairman of the board of the Suppliers of the Customs Union Association, says that “joining the EaEU itself is not a remedy for salvation of the economy. The Eurasian Economic Union is a field of opportunities that need intensive and scrupulous work, starting with implementation of new technical regulations. It is work with the Eurasian Economic Commission, the Eurasian Bank for Reconstruction and Development… We need to understand that no one will come and just give for no reason.”
Johnny Melikyan, an Armenian political analyst, the head of the Center for Political and Legal Studies, reminded that Armenian opposition organized protests in Yerevan on the day of signing of the EaEU Treaty. “Many Western media with influence in Armenia used it to show that some number of people speaks against that step of Armenian authorities. In reality, the opposition field of Armenia has hardly any power, except one pro-Western party, to speak against joining the EaEU.”
Nonetheless, according to Johnny Melikyan, there is a problem with popularizing the EaEU: “There is need for more public hearings, for Armenian government to hold events, so that the common population, residents of Armenia, understood why the prices for gas are low today; why an ordinary Armenian citizen has opportunities to enter Russia without problems. We all know how big the sum of transfers are in the national GDP in the Republic of Armenia.”
Denis Tyurin, the director of the SCO Business Club, believes that “Armenia’s joining the EaEU is not an end in some process, it is just the beginning of big and very hard work for integration of Armenian economy into the economy of countries of the Customs Union. There will be difficulties of other nature on this path, what matters is counterstanding international forces reluctant to form a powerful bloc that would act in the interests of the countries, not interests of the Western capital.”
According to Tyurin, “Western funds, different grant-givers show great activeness to intensify negative moments associated with public perception of Armenia’s joining the EaEU. We see growing protest activeness, emergence of many different non-governmental organizations operating using foreign funds, stirring up the public, making different undesired forecasts for the future of Armenian economy and the future of the civil society in Armenia come true. We see discredit of the Armenian government with the money of Western grant-givers in European and world media.”
Tyurin understands that “the negative tendencies clearly manifesting in the country’s joining the Eurasian Economic Union deserve special attention from the public of Armenia and the government. In other words, Armenia has a long way towards establishment of economic ties with Russia and other countries of the Eurasian Economic Union and in overcoming the powerful information campaign initiated on the territory of the country by Western states to discredit Armenia’s participation in the Eurasian Economic Union.”
