Yerevan /Mediamax/. Russian Deputy Prime Minister Alexei Overchuk said that Armenia’s economic growth demonstrates that it is the key beneficiary of EAEU membership.

TASS reports that Alexei Overchuk reiterated the statement made last week that Moscow considers Yerevan’s decision to launch the EU accession process as the beginning of Armenia’s withdrawal from the Eurasian Economic Union (EAEU).

“They say they have no plans to leave the EAEU. But what is the peculiarity of the situation? Talks about Armenia moving closer to the European Union have been going on for a long time, but on January 9, 2025, the Armenian government took a legally significant step by supporting a bill about announcing the launch of the EU accession process.

Further steps are up to the Armenian government. We will see how the situation unfolds,” Overchuk said.

“The initiators of the bill “On launching the process of joining the European Union” understand perfectly well that joining the EU is a very hypothetical thing, and of course, they do not want to lose the economic benefits and advantages that they have as a member of the EAEU,” Russian deputy premier said.

“Unfortunately, already last year we observed that under the influence of discussions on EU accession, Russian businesses became more cautious about developing economic ties with Armenia. We saw that business activity in a number of areas started to decline,” Overchuk added.