BAKU, Azerbaijan, May 29. Russian President Vladimir Putin stated that Moscow could practically wind down its work in the sphere of economic integration with Armenia if Yerevan decides to proceed with its efforts aimed at joining the European Union, Trend reports.
He made the remarks during a press conference following the meeting of the Supreme Eurasian Economic Council in Astana.
The Russian leader emphasized that Moscow respects the right of the Armenian leadership to make decisions independently, based on the country's interests.
"I told him [Nikol Pashinyan] before, and he will confirm this, I told him that whatever is good for Armenia is acceptable and good for Russia. Do as you see fit, based on the interests of the Armenian people. You are in power now, the responsibility for decision-making lies with you; whatever you say will be," Putin said.
At the same time, the Russian President noted that Yerevan's potential decisions would not affect the relations between the peoples of the two countries.
"Whatever decisions are made, this will not spoil our humanitarian ties, it will not spoil our political ties, but in this case, we are talking about a purely economic substance," he stated.
According to Putin, combining different economic mechanisms and standards is an extremely complex process.
"Some mechanisms are possible for us, while others are impossible. That is, there are a lot of things today that are simply incompatible. They cannot coexist," the Russian President said.
He noted that transitioning to European standards would require significant investment and time.
"To ensure, say, certain standards in Europe, which are probably more advanced than ours, we have to invest money to create production for such products. And vice versa. Therefore, combining one with the other right today or tomorrow is practically impossible," Putin noted.
In this regard, he stated that Russia might be forced to scale back integration-driven economic interaction.
"Therefore, we will be forced to wind down practically all of our work - not just in some areas, but by and large - in the economic sphere concerning integration processes," the Russian President declared.
