To putin's delight. Armenia continues to deepen cooperation with russia - media
The Armenian authorities are increasing the scope of cooperation with the aggressor state of the russian federation against the background of Yerevan's statements about a possible turn towards the European Union and Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan's assurance that "in the situation with Ukraine, we are not Russia's allies." The latest high-profile political action of the Minister of Foreign Affairs of Armenia, Ararat Mirzoyan, who refused to sign two joint statements of the Council of Foreign Ministers of the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) in moscow on October 7-8, does not in any way coincide with the real increase in trade between Armenia and russia, which beats all records, writes KP.UA.
"Trade and economic relations are developing very vigorously and successfully, last year's trade turnover reached USD 7.4 billion, and in the first half of this year it increased 2.5 times, exceeding USD 8.3 billion. If we move at this pace, it means that this year's trade turnover may amount to USD 14-16 billion – this is a record figure," russian dictator vladimir putin said at a meeting with Pashinyan in moscow on October 8, Interfax reported.
That is, the trade turnover between Armenia and the russian federation, which amounted to only USD 2.3 billion in 2020, increased more than 6 times during the years of the full-scale russian invasion of Ukraine. Armenia does not join Western anti-russian sanctions and earns money by re-exporting dual-purpose goods to the russian federation, which uses them for weapons production. In 2023, Armenia imported twice as much chemicals, five times as much IT equipment and four times as much electronics from Europe as in 2021, The Economist notes. According to the New York Times, in the first year of the russian federation's full-scale invasion of Ukraine, Armenia imported 515% more chips and processors from the U.S. and 212% more from the EU than in 2021. This explains the increased trade between Yerevan and moscow, which is simply a screen for circumventing Western anti-russian sanctions.
Against the background of increasing trade with the russian federation, the Armenian authorities are very careful about contacts with Ukraine, which does not correspond to the declared "European vector". In the third year of the full-scale war, Armenia and Ukraine still cooperate only in the format of so-called "political consultations".
The publication reminds that Armenia refused to sign the communique of the Peace Summit, which took place in Switzerland in June. Then the ambassador of Armenia to Ukraine,
Vladimir Karapetyan, said that "currently, the situation in our region is very unstable, there are a lot of threats."