EU or Eurasia: Why Putin sparred with Armenia’s PM
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x whatsapp-stroke copylink google Add Al Jazeera on Google info Russian President Vladimir Putin and Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan attend a meeting at the Kremlin in Moscow, Russia [File: Mikhail Metzel/Pool via Reuters] Published On 2 Sep 2026 2 Sep 2026 Russia President Vladimir Putin has warned Armenia’s Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan that Yerevan’s bid to join the European Union could disrupt trade with Moscow.
Relations between the two countries have reached historic lows as Yerevan pivots towards the West, prompting sharp economic and political retaliation from Moscow.
In a tense meeting on the sidelines of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation’s summit in Kyrgyzstan’s capital on Tuesday, Putin said that Moscow needs clarity on whether Yerevan wants to join the EU so it can decide on the future of bilateral trade with Armenia.
Putin also said that Armenia joining the EU would be tantamount to declaring a break from the Eurasian Economic Union (EEU) – a Russia-led grouping of several post-Soviet states.
Last April, Yerevan decided to adopt a law to launch the process of EU accession – a sticking point for Russia, which views its neighbouring post-Soviet countries as a vital security shield between its borders and the European Union.
In Bishkek, Armenia’s Pashinyan stressed that Yerevan has not violated any of its obligations towards Russia through its EU accession process and did not want to leave the EEU.
What happened at the meeting? Here’s what we know:
At their meeting on Tuesday, according to the Kremlin, Putin told Pashinyan that while Russia is a key economic and trade partner to Armenia, Yerevan’s EU aspirations could create complications for its EEU membership.
“Armenia’s aspiration to join the EU is the natural and legitimate right of the country and its people. Armenia is a sovereign state, and it is for the Armenian people to determine the trajectory of their own development,” Putin said.
“Nevertheless, this unquestionably creates complications for Armenia’s continued membership in the Eurasian Economic Union, and threatens to erode the advantages the Republic enjoys on the EEU market and to sever established trade links,” he added.
Pashinyan, however, said Armenia’s decision last year to adopt a law launching the process of EU accession did not violate its obligations to Russia or the EEU and that it was only an alternative his government had given to the people of Armenia.
After the fall of the Soviet Union in 1991, Armenia became Russia’s closest ally in the South Caucasus, with the two nations developing their trade, economic and political ties. Armenia has also long been Russia’s closest regional ally, a Collective Security Treaty Organisation (CSTO) member, host to a Russian military base and is dependent on Russian gas.
Currently, Russia is Armenia’s key trade and economic partner, accounting for roughly 30 percent of its trade, and an investor in Armenia’s economy. In the first half of this year, bilateral trade also reached $2.5bn.
But despite economic ties, relations between the two countries have been tense since 2023, after the historical conflict in the Nagorno-Karabakh region of Azerbaijan erupted again.
Russia, which is fighting its own war in Ukraine, did not intervene militarily when Azerbaijan launched a major military offensive in Nagorno-Karabakh, which had a large Armenian population and had been de facto independent since the 1990s.
Laurentiu Plesca, a political analyst and researcher focusing on EU enlargement and European security at the German Marshall Fund of the United States, told Al Jazeera that Moscow decision not to support Yerevan during the Karabakh war in 2023 led to Armenia’s pivot towards the West.
He said that this, in turn, upset Moscow, further souring relations.
“Russia started blocking imports of Armenian goods and is threatening to suspend the duty-free supply of gas, oil products, and diamonds to Armenia,” he said.
“The EU, in turn, has pledged economic support to offset that pressure,” he added.
In early July, the European Commission’s President Ursula von der Leyen also told Yerevan that it could count on the EU amid any economic pressure from Russia and pledged an additional 18 million euros (about $20m) as part of a broader 52 million euros (about $60m) economic support package.
Last April, Armenia’s president signed into law a bill that set the legal foundation for the country to move towards joining the EU.
Pashinyan, who took power in 2018 and was part of launching the EU bid, has repeatedly stressed that the bill did not represent an application to join the EU, but the start of a broader process of integration.
However, in July this year, Pashinyan told lawmakers in the country that Armenia would decide its future EU membership by holding a referendum “in the near future”.
Yerevan has significantly deepened its European ties, hosting its first official EU summit last month alongside a wider European gathering attended by Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy.
Armenia also hosted French President Emmanuel Macron for a high-profile state visit, which provoked sharp criticism from the Kremlin after a video emerged of Macron singing while Pashinyan played the drums.
Putin has previously warned Armenia that it views membership in the EU as incompatible with the EEU, and Armenia would have to leave if it joins the EU.
The EEU…
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