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On April 10, 2025, the Institute of CIS Countries, in cooperation with its Yerevan branch, held a session of the International Expert Roundtable “EU or EAEU: Can Armenia Sit on Two Chairs?”, which was held in the format of a video-conference in Moscow and Yerevan.

The session was attended by Alexander Krylov, Chief Research Fellow of the Sector for the Caucasus of the Center for post-Soviet Studies of IMEMO, Dr. of Science (History). In his speech “Features of the Foreign Policy of the Republic of Armenia at the Present Stage”, the expert suggested not to consider Armenia's movement towards the EU as an achievable goal, but only as an attempt of Yerevan to demonstrate its attitude towards Europe. The political analyst cited the example of Turkey, which has been a candidate for the EU membership for 25 years, but has not become a member, despite the higher growth rates and the size of economy than Armenia.

The main goal of the discussion, which was attended by leading experts on Russian-Armenian relations of the two countries, was to determine how far the current leadership of Armenia is ready to go in implementing the European vector and how this policy will affect relations with Russia and the Eurasian Economic Union.

The Russian and Armenian expert communities did not ignore the acute topic created by the Armenian authorities, who announced their path to European integration. On April 4 of this year, the President of the Republic of Armenia Vahagn Khachaturyan signed the law “On the Beginning of the Process of Accession of the Republic of Armenia to the European Union”. At the same time, the Armenian authorities continue to declare and indoctrinate the population of the country that they would like to maintain their membership in the EAEU. The commitment of the Armenian leadership to reorient itself towards the EU has already been assessed by Russian officials earlier. Taking into account the sovereign right of the state to choose its path, the impossibility of preserving the format of interaction with the EAEU and simultaneously moving towards integration with the EU was emphasized, not only for political, but also for purely economic reasons.

The participants of the meeting examined in detail this problem in the economic and political plane. Despite the differences in approaches and assessments, the participants agreed that the attempts of the Armenian authorities to move towards European integration will inevitably lead to the loss of trade and economic ties with Russia and the EAEU countries, which can have an extremely negative impact on the lives of citizens.