Russian officials commented on Yerevan's statement about possible rapprochement with the European Union and the current state of relations between Russia and Armenia.
Deputy Prime Minister Alexey Overchuk, responding to a question about Armenia's European course, referred it directly to Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan. He also noted a nearly halved decline in trade turnover between Yerevan and Moscow—from $12.4 billion in 2024 to $6 billion in 2025. Overchuk emphasized that Russian businesses have become more cautious in their dealings with Armenia and reiterated the incompatibility of its simultaneous participation in the EAEU and rapprochement with other integration associations.
For her part, Russian Foreign Ministry spokesperson Maria Zakharova stated that Armenia remains a full member of the CSTO and Moscow sees no obstacles to its full participation in the organization. Zakharova called Yerevan's statement about freezing its participation in the CSTO "verbal balancing act," since such a mechanism is not provided for in the organization's documents.
