Foreign policy: Russia and Armenia have outlined positions on the EAEU

The CSTO should not have interfered in the Karabakh process, Russian President Vladimir Putin said at the Russian-Armenian talks in the Kremlin. On April 1, Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan arrived in Moscow on a state visit. Relations between Yerevan and Baku have now stabilized, the Russian leader noted. He expressed hope that the internal political situation in Armenia on the eve of the elections would not affect relations with Moscow. Promising areas of cooperation are trade, energy and transport. However, the issue of Armenia's membership in the EAEU remains open in the event of its accession to the European Union. What Pashinyan decided about the country's economic future and how Vladimir Putin reacted to it is in the Izvestia article.

Putin and Pashinyan discussed Karabakh and the CSTO

On April 1, Russian President Vladimir Putin had a pretty busy schedule. Among other meetings, bilateral state negotiations were held. Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan has arrived in Russia for this purpose, and this is his 32nd visit.

The last time the heads of state met face-to-face was in December 2025 at a meeting of the Supreme Eurasian Economic Council and an informal CIS summit. Then the Prime Minister thanked the head of the Russian Federation for supporting the settlement between Armenia and Azerbaijan. At the same time, the situation with Nagorno-Karabakh still leaves some questions open, at least for Yerevan. And the Kremlin understands this. Here, at the official Russian-Armenian talks, Vladimir Putin called this the most sensitive issue.

— We know that both you and your colleagues have had and still have questions and some complaints about the Collective Security Treaty Organization, the CSTO. We've been coming back to this all the time. But I think it is also obvious that after you recognized in Prague in 2022 that Karabakh is part of Azerbaijan, it was simply completely incorrect for the CSTO to interfere in the process, which acquired an intra—Azerbaijani dimension," the head of the Russian Federation explained.

Since the settlement of the Karabakh issue, Armenia has frozen its participation in the CSTO, which was personally confirmed by Nikol Pashinyan. At the same time, Yerevan officially remains a member of the organization. In any case, the conflict between Armenia and Azerbaijan has been resolved, and US President Donald Trump is also involved. In August 2025, Nikol Pashinyan and Ilham Aliyev signed a trilateral Joint Declaration at the White House. According to Vladimir Putin, all this really helped to stabilize the difficult relations between the two neighbors.

— Here we need to look for further ways to strengthen relations. But it seems to me that we should also put an end to this, and it would be better if this were not part of the internal political process, especially during the election campaign," the president noted.

Parliamentary elections will be held in Armenia on June 7, which are of key importance for the further political career of Nikol Pashinyan. The prime minister's rating may be affected by the conflict with the Armenian Apostolic Church (AAC), which has been going on for several years, but escalated in the summer of 2025 - all because of the same Karabakh. The AAC criticized the government after the return of a number of border villages to Azerbaijan in the process of border delimitation, which provoked opposition protests.

Currently, investigative actions against a number of clergymen are continuing in the republic. On the day of Pashinyan's visit to Moscow, there was even a rally in support of the church outside the Armenian embassy.

The main thing is that the difficult internal political situation in Armenia does not affect relations between Moscow and Yerevan, Vladimir Putin expressed hope.

— There is a special relationship between Russia and Armenia, they have been building not for decades, but for centuries. We are united by a common history and the solution of common tasks through joint efforts in the old days. We are also united by a common civilization, which is extremely important. I told you face to face once, and I can say publicly that we are always satisfied with what benefits the Armenian people, and you can always proceed from this," the president stressed.

Armenia's membership in the EAEU

In general, the leaders of the two countries maintain contacts: for example, in a telephone conversation on March 23, they discussed cooperation in trade, economic, energy and transport spheres. There are certainly prospects, but there is still work to be done.

In 2025, the trade turnover between Russia and Armenia amounted to $6.4 billion, although the results of the year before reached $11 billion. At the same time, the volume of trade with Azerbaijan is less ($4.9 billion). Of course, the Russian buyer has long known and appreciated Armenian vegetables, fruits and wine. Putin also called energy a very important area of cooperation. In particular, Rosatom helped modernize the second power unit of the Armenian NPP, which made it possible to extend its operation — the work ended in 2021. The parties are also discussing the construction of a new nuclear power plant, although other countries are participating in the "tender". The Republic is also studying proposals from the United States, China, South Korea and France.

Cooperation in the transport industry remains one of the key issues. In December 2025, Nikol Pashinyan asked the Russian side to help with the restoration of railway tracks leading to Azerbaijan and Turkey.

The parties will probably discuss these issues at the upcoming SPIEF. The Russian Embassy informed Izvestia that an invitation has already been sent to the Armenian side.

Of course, the negotiations could not do without the issue of Armenia's membership in the EAEU, which still brings significant economic advantages to the republic. The country's exports to various states of the union have increased tenfold in recent years, Vladimir Putin said. And Russia sells gas to Armenia much cheaper than it is currently being bought in Europe. At the same time, Yerevan obviously wants to get the most by striving to join the European Union at the same time.

- We see that there is a discussion in Armenia about the development of relations with the European Union. We are absolutely calm about this. We understand that any country seeks maximum benefits from cooperation with third countries. But it should be obvious, it should be honest, it was said in advance, as they say, on the shore: staying in the customs union with the European Union and the EAEU is impossible," Putin said.

Armenia knows that membership in the EAEU and the EU is incompatible, but so far these processes have not reached the point where it is necessary to make a choice, Pashinyan replied. However, these structures themselves may well interact, the Russian president suggested.

"I hope it will be like this, after all, we live on the same continent," he said.

However, even before the Ukrainian crisis, Moscow tried to negotiate with the Europeans. Now it is possible in the very long term.

Nikol Pashinyan stressed during the talks that relations between Armenia and Russia have never been and will never be in question due to Yerevan's cooperation with Brussels. Moscow and Yerevan still have many promising areas, political analyst Nikolai Silaev believes.

— These are nuclear and conventional energy. The potential for integration of industrial policy remains. This is the transport if the connection with Azerbaijan opens. Actually, the route, the opening of which was agreed back in 2020 with Azerbaijan with the mediation of Russia, just now Armenia wants to give the project to the Americans," the expert tells Izvestia.

The aforementioned "Trump route" (TRIPP), a project of a transport and infrastructure corridor between Azerbaijan and Nakhichevan through Armenia, which Pashinyan and Aliyev agreed on at the White House, is fraught with additional difficulties, and they concern the EAEU again. According to Silaev, TRIPP will represent a "hole" in the common customs border of the union. And if Armenia implements this project consistently, that is, with the transfer of customs and border control to a private American campaign, then it will still have to withdraw from the EAEU, since such actions will be a serious violation of the rules of unification.