Kosachev: Pashinyan`s party`s victory in Armenia`s parliamentary  elections does not give him the right to make any major changes in  political course

ArmInfo. The victory of incumbent Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan's party in Armenia's parliamentary elections does not give him the right to make any major changes in political course, either domestically or in foreign  policy.

At the same time, Russia has every reason to remove all  benefits from its trade and economic agreements with Armenia that  were based solely on the friendly nature of the two countries'  relations. This was stated by Deputy Chairman of the Federation  Council Konstantin Kosachev, in response to questions from the  Parlamentskaya Gazeta outlet.

 "The votes he received, apparently, will give him the right to form  a government. But, in my deep conviction, they do not give him any  right—moral, political, or legal—to undertake any large-scale reforms  to the country's domestic or foreign policy. Mr. Pashinyan, who  received less than half of the votes in Armenia, clearly lacks the  people's mandate to do so. With such a vote result, he is obliged to  maintain the continuity of Armenia's policy and not reverse it 180  degrees, as he is attempting," Kosachev stated.

He recalled that Armenia is a member of the Eurasian Economic Union,  and has yet withdrawn from the CSTO, although making statements to  that effect. He added that Armenia is trying to build normal,  friendly relations with Russia, although there have already been  enough "turns" in this regard. "In my view, Pashinyan and his team's  statement that they will never do anything against Russia is 'erased'  by the very fact that the May EU summit was held in Yerevan and  Zelensky, the head of the Kyiv regime, was invited.  It would have  been impossible to imagine a more anti-Russian gathering—what was  done then in Yerevan during the Armenia-EU summit was an absolutely  anti-Russian action, without a doubt. In my view, Mr.  Pashinyan has  no mandate to continue this kind of action, whether it involves  holding anti-Russian gatherings on Armenian territory with the  participation of Zelensky, or withdrawing the country from the EAEU  or the CSTO," he added. When asked to clarify the current policy of  the authorities led by Prime Minister Pashinyan, Kosachev noted that,  in his view, it consists of sitting on every possible "chair" in  order to profit from each of them—somewhere in the economy, somewhere  in politics, somewhere else.

"Some say, including Mr. Pashinyan himself, that this is a pragmatic  policy. But, in my opinion, such a policy is dishonest, to call a  spade a spade. Consistency is essential in politics, and what, in  Armenia's case, is now coyly disguised as a vague term like  'multi-vectorism,' in fact, in my view, is more accurately  characterized by the word 'omnivorousness' and is associated with  attempts to get a piece of every pie at any cost. And this almost  always ends badly—sooner or later, I suspect, Armenia under Pashinyan  will have nowhere else to bite off from," he said.

Kosachev also believes that Russia must now be very selective in its  trade and economic relations with Armenia. "I would start by removing  from the agreements all the benefits and advantages  flowing from the  friendly nature of Russian-Armenian relations—currently, the  relations between Moscow and Yerevan can only be called such with  great difficulty. Yes, they are not unfriendly, but you can't call  them friendly either. But when it comes to any actions or measures we  take against unfriendly states, I would certainly not rush and  exercise caution. Because, firstly, our relations have not yet become  unfriendly, and secondly, we must clearly understand that sanctions  and similar measures often have the exact opposite effect on people's  moods," he concluded.