"I would like to point out what I consider to be extremely important: without any exaggeration, the Russian and Armenian peoples are bound by ties of friendship and a history of special relationships spanning centuries." This was stated today, May 29, by Russian President Vladimir Putin at a press conference following the Eurasian Economic Forum, in response to a question regarding the future of Armenia within the EAEU.

"We have a special relationship: between Russia and Armenia, and between Russia and the Armenian people. I have told Nikol Pashinyan this, and he will confirm it. I told him that whatever is good for Armenians is acceptable and good for Russia.

Do whatever you deem necessary, acting in the best interests of the Armenian people. You are in power right now. The responsibility for making decisions lies with you. Whatever you decide, that is how it will be," Vladimir Putin said.

According to the Russian President, no matter what those decisions may be, they will not ruin humanitarian or political ties.

"However, in this particular case, we are talking about purely economic matters. Everything needs to be calculated, looked at carefully, and then decisions must be made. I have already mentioned this. The crisis in Ukraine originally started with attempts to align Ukraine with the EU. We weren't against it. But we said: 'Listen, phytosanitary standards, for example, are completely different.' This comes down to market access. In Russia, dating back to the Soviet Union—and therefore applicable to all EAEU countries today—phytosanitary standards are much stricter than in Europe. For instance, we have restrictions on genetically modified products. Our people do not want to eat genetically modified food. They just don't. And we are forced to take that into account. There are no deep studies yet on the long-term effects of consuming these products on humans.

The technical regulations are entirely different too. Some equipment could be sold in our market, while some couldn't—even down to steel grades and so on. In other words, there are a lot of things right now that are simply incompatible. They cannot coexist. This doesn't mean we are against it. We are in favor, but it requires time and capital investment. To meet certain standards in Europe—which are probably more advanced than ours—we would need to invest money to set up production facilities for such products. And vice versa, by the way.

Therefore, combining one with the other literally overnight is practically impossible. Because of this, we would ultimately be forced to roll back practically all of our economic operations with Armenia when it comes to integration processes. You asked what the advantages are—this is how we see those advantages," the Russian President said.