YEREVAN. – Like previous years, Armenia has not recorded a significant progress in the fight against corruption.

The Executive Director of Transparency International Anti-corruption Center NGO of Armenia Varuzhan Hoktanyan, stated the aforesaid at a press conference on Tuesday.

In his words, the respective situation in the country has not deteriorated, and even though there are weak signs of improvement, it is still too early to speak about an improvement.

Hoktanyan also expressed a conviction that Armenia’s forthcoming accession to the Russia-led Eurasian Economic Union does not give grounds for much optimism in terms of combating corruption.

According to him, if Armenia continues having intensive contacts with the European Union (EU) and the United States, which are in a better condition in terms of battling corruption, there will be a hope that the negative impact will be neutralized.

Nonetheless, Varuzhan Hoktanyan is not sure whether the corruption-related situation in Armenia would have improved if the country had signed the EU Association Agreement. He recommended waiting and seeing what the ensuing situation will be in Georgia and Moldova, which have signed this document.