Overview
- Leaders at the Eurasian Economic Union summit urged an immediate referendum on EU membership on May 29, a demand Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan has publicly rejected as impractical before any formal EU accession process.
- Pashinyan said the government will continue to operate inside the EAEU until a formal EU accession path makes a clear choice necessary, rejecting Russia’s call and describing relations with Moscow as in a transformation phase.
- Moscow has escalated pressure by recalling its ambassador, expanding sanitary and import bans on Armenian food and agricultural products, and warning it may suspend preferential energy and trade terms that Armenia currently receives.
- International reporting says Russian officials discussed influence operations to sway the June 7 election, including an unconfirmed plan to temporarily repatriate Armenian passport holders in Russia to vote and a Kremlin-linked agency to run influence campaigns.
- Longstanding economic links to Russia — cheap gas, a Russian-run rail concession, Russian-supplied nuclear fuel and large remittance flows — give Moscow durable leverage even if pro-European forces win, while EU and U.S. initiatives offer Yerevan new but gradual alternatives.