News - Russia deputy PM: Armenia's political vector is turning more towards the West

The Eurasian Economic Union and the European Union are incompatible, and the arrival of extra-regional players in Armenia will have consequences, Russian Deputy Prime Minister Alexei Overchuk stated at the Primakov Readings international forum, reports TASS. "Of course, talking about Armenia, it is impossible, it would not be right to turn a blind eye, as they say, to the fact that today the political vector of that country is turning more towards the West," said the Russian deputy PM. "It is necessary to understand that the European Union and the Eurasian Economic Union are incompatible things. And the benefits that a country receives from its rapprochement with Russia should also be perceived as a price we pay for our security and strategic depth. So, the entry of any extra-regional player there will certainly have consequences." Overchuk noted that Russia is interested in a stable Armenia, good trade relations, and "good fraternal relations" with it. "When real threats arise, as now, when the [natural] disaster [of floods] actually destroyed the only railway route that connected Armenia with the rest of the world through Georgia, we [i.e. Russia] came to help, by the decision of the Russian President, and restored [railway] traffic in a record time," said the Russian deputy premier.