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.