Nikol Pashinyan said today that he has questions regarding the joint statement of the EAEU issued on May 29, which was adopted by the presidents of four countries at a summit held in his absence. Pashinyan says he has questions for his EAEU partners about how such decisions could be made without his participation. The Armenian prime minister is clearly trying, as the Russians say, to “put a good face on a bad game.” Because if Nikol Pashinyan truly had questions, he should have raised them on June 1, for example, when he received a phone call from the leader of the EAEU, Russian President Vladimir Putin.
Let me remind you that the summit held in Astana on May 29 was, in essence, ultimatum-like in its logic. Two days later, Russian President Putin called Nikol Pashinyan on the occasion of his birthday. Incidentally, as later reported by the Armenian government’s information department, Pashinyan first highly praised Putin’s ability to smooth over sharp corners and approach matters with understanding, and also thanked the Russian president for his support. The EAEU quartet presents Nikol Pashinyan with a text resembling an ultimatum, and two days later, during a telephone conversation, Pashinyan thanks President Putin for some kind of support. Isn’t that strange? What do you think? And it is even stranger when today Nikol Pashinyan says that he has questions. Could he not have asked those questions directly to the Russian president on June 1, while the matter was still fresh?
Or perhaps, in that sense, the only ‘hot’ matter that could have been discussed during the phone conversation held on the occasion of the June 1 anniversary was the menu for Nikol Pashinyan’s holiday table on that festive day — the possible assortment of hot dishes. Although, in those days, the prime minister’s menu seemed to belong to campaign tables.
But the questions related to the ultimatum received from the EAEU should have been raised immediately, because, at least on the surface, that ultimatum seemed to spoil the pre-election extravagance. But, I repeat, instead, Pashinyan thanked Putin for his support. Now he is preparing to ask questions.
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Or perhaps it was Russia’s president who, on June 1, posed—or rather conveyed—those questions to him, so that they could be placed on the EAEU’s table at some future occasion, where Armenia is more the occasion than the cause.
Hakob BADALYAN
