Maslennikov on Possible EU Demands from Armenia

The leadership of the European Union will, at some point, demand complete political solidarity from Armenia, including alignment with Brussels' anti-Russian stance. This was stated in an interview with TASS by Vladislav Maslennikov, Director of the Department of European Affairs of the Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

“At a certain point, Brussels will begin to demand complete solidarity with its foreign policy from any candidate country, which is currently overtly anti-Russian,” the diplomat noted while commenting on Armenia's European integration plans. He also added that he hopes Yerevan realizes that even fulfilling all of Brussels’ demands does not guarantee EU membership.

Maslennikov cited the countries of the Western Balkans as an example, which, according to him, have been “in line for EU membership” for decades. He noted that Albania has been in this process since 2000, North Macedonia since 2004, Montenegro since 2008, and Serbia since 2009, fulfilling the strict and often unpopular demands of European bureaucrats, yet still have not approached EU membership.

The diplomat further emphasized that EU membership, especially under current conditions, does not guarantee the prosperity of candidate countries. He pointed out that the Baltic states, which recently celebrated the 20th anniversary of their EU membership, exhibit economic indicators and demographic situations that are, to put it mildly, insignificant.