All the talk that the Russian authorities are trying to recreate the USSR by creating the Eurasian Economic Union are groundless, Director of the New York based Institute for Democracy and Cooperation, political scientist Andranik Mihranyan said at a video conference in Yerevan on Tuesday.
"Yes, Russian President Vladimir Putin has staked his whole image to successfully put into practice and promote the Eurasian Economic Union. However, this does not mean that the rather fierce assessments voiced in the West, for instance, Hillary Clinton's assessments are correct. Russia cannot, by any stretch of the imagination, restore the USSR. Moreover, I can say with confidence that Moscow has no desire to do it", he said.
Mihranyan recalled that Russia spent 50 billion rubles annually to maintain the republics of the former USSR. Such donations were sent to the budgets of the USSR republics for maintenance of their academies of sciences, museums, cultural facilities, etc. Therefore, despite the conventional wisdom that Georgia and Armenia could exist by selling Borzhomi and Jermuk, the real life put everything into perspective.
"So, it is necessary to pay for the empire. Today the superpowers are interested in the countries wherefrom they can receive energy resources. Armenia is not among such countries. We have brain, but it drains from the republic. It just happened that Armenians were historically used to living within empires and displaying their best individual features. Competitiveness has always been our best quality and large countries realize this perfectly", he said.