YEREVAN. – Armenian President Serzh Sargsyan chose the Eurasian Economic Union (EaEU) direction solely to hold on to his power, opposition Heritage Party member Armen Martirosyan said at a press conference on Wednesday.

“This is apparent, since Armenia’s EaEU accession is not beneficial to us in any way,” the opposition member stated.

To the reporters’ query as to why Armenia’s EaEU accession process is being put off, Martirosyan responded: “Neither Russia nor the [EaEU] ‘partners’ [i.e., Belarus and Kazakhstan] are interested that we [Armenia] become members in this organization. No one wants an extra mouth to feed.”  

In addition, Heritage’s representative expressed confidence that the Kremlin does not perceive official Yerevan as an equal partner. Moreover, according to him, the main objective of official Moscow was not seeing Armenia in EaEU, but rather preventing it from signing the European Union Association Agreement.

And this objective, as per Armen Martirosyan, is an “unacceptable position towards a strategic partner, especially given that Russia is constantly arming the neighboring Azerbaijan.”