Armenia should not sacrifice its economic interests linked with Europe, in order to please seamless political relations with Russia, which were already fully formed, a member of the initiative group for restoration of the "Armenian Pan-National Movement" party, former chairman of the parliamentary commission for foreign relations, Hovanes Igityan, told Arminfo correspondent.
"I mean the policy, as I am sure that the prospects of Armenia's joining the Customs Union were not revised from the economic point of view, but only from the political one. Besides several non-serious expositions and figures voiced by Vladimir Putin in Novo-Ogarevo, I did not notice any economically grounded calculations which allow us speak about the benefits of Armenia's joining the Customs Union", - Igityan said.
In this context, the politician could not strictly define the reasons, why Serzh Sargsyan refused development of European integration of Armenia. He separated only an option of a strong pressure of the Kremlin upon Yerevan, in particular, the behind-the-scenes Sargsyan-Putin talk before signing of documents in Novo-Ogarevo. "However, I did not notice any obvious pressure of the Kremlin upon Armenia, which would make it possible to justify sharp changing of Armenia's course. So, this may be explained by ungainliness of the domestic political field of the republic, by the fact that the president does not have a normal team, and finally, by his personal factors", - Igityan said. He called Sargsyan's statement regressive, wrong and humiliating, and said that president of Armenia would be ashamed of signing the document which brings no economic benefit to Armenia.