The abundant media coverage received in recent weeks by“orientation européenne†claimed by the Armenian government provides information on the importance given to it by the Russian state. The diplomatic sequence that took place earlier this month in Yerevan – the eighth summit of the European Political Community, an unprecedented European Union (EU)-Armenia summit and a state visit by French President Emmanuel Macron – greatly displeased Moscow, which interpreted it as a desire to supplant Russia’s influence in the country.
In an acrimonious interview published in the weekly Monocle, political scientist Nikolaï Silaïev, from MGIMO, the Moscow State Institute of International Relations, formulates heavy criticism of the EU, accusing it of wanting “harm Russia wherever and whenever possibleâ€. He denounces the duplicity of Nikol Pashinian, whose visit to Moscow he recalls on 1is last April: according to Silaïev, the Armenian Prime Minister intended, by this trip, “give the illusion of good relations with Russia in the eyes of uninformed votersâ€. And tranche: “He could have achieved this if he had been able to hear and take into account at least some of the concerns that Russia had expressed to him in the Kreml
