YEREVAN. – Armenia’s forthcoming accession to the Russia-led Eurasian Economic Union (EEU) was a step to keep power. Opposition Heritage Party Vice-Chairman Armen Martirosyan stated about the aforesaid at a press conference on Monday.

“Joining the EEU does not benefit us [, Armenia,] in any way. It’s just that the ruling [political] party was so frightened of losing power that it resorted to such a step,” Martirosyan said.

In his words, the Russia-led union will have several negative economic consequences for Armenia.

“First, Russia is not going to make here [, in Armenia,] the investments which would have been [made] when signing the EU Association Agreement.

“Second, there will be no industry upgrade, economy innovations in Armenia because the products which Armenia will export to the EEU countries will be agricultural products, which do not require high technology.

“[And] third, Armenia will be deprived of financial and human resources,” Heritage’s official noted.

He also expressed a view that the security justifications for Armenia’s EEU accession are irrelevant; first, because there is no such a clause in the accession treaty, and second, Armenia is already an ally of Russia and a member in the Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO).

“[Instead,] the EEU treaty has a clause on customs control. This means that if a customs checkpoint is required to be set up between Armenia and Artsakh [i.e., Nagorno-Karabakh], we [, Armenia,] cannot object [to it] in any way,” Armen Martirosyan stated.