The European Union has its own levers of pressure, and Russia will have to put up with the results of the negotiations on the Armenia-EU and Ukraine-EU Association Agreements, Vitis Yurkonis, lecturer at the Institute of International Relations and Political Science at Vilnius University, told ArmInfo on July 16.
He thinks that Lithuania's EU Chairmanship would focus on Ukraine. "If that country signs the Association Agreement, it will finally deviate from the integration into the Eurasian Union. This can't help irritating Russia", he said. He thinks that the given agreement has become a new reason for a geopolitical fight between Moscow and Brussels, however, the Brussels levers will impact Russia's stance.
In the meantime, the expert is skeptical about Armenia's possible initialing of the Association Agreement, because this process must be carried out with all the Eastern Partnership member countries simultaneously. "Meanwhile, most of the Eastern Partnership members are not yet ready for the Association Agreement", he said. Yurkonis thinks this may delay Armenia's signing as well.
To note, Lithuania assumed the EU Chairmanship on July 1. President of Lithuania Dalia Grybauskaite said that one of the Lithuania's EU Chairmanship priorities would be the EU's relations with Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Georgia, Moldova and Ukraine. She expressed hope that Association Agreements and documents on Deep and Comprehensive Free Trade Area would be signed with the specified countries.