Moscow calls the EU's interest in relations with Armenia ostentatious

The European Union's interest in developing relations with Armenia is deliberately ostentatious, and its goal is to harm Russia and to advance its own geopolitical objectives, Vladislav Maslennikov, director of the Department of European Problems at Russia's Foreign Ministry and Russia's senior official at the Arctic Council, said in an interview with RIA Novosti.

"Yerevan's course, given the fundamental incompatibility of EU legislation and EAEU law, cannot but raise questions for us. Just like the deliberately ostentatious interest of the European Union in developing relations with Armenia," Maslennikov said.

He emphasized that, taking into account the openly anti-Russian policy of the European Union, which is increasingly turning into an agreement-incapable and aggressively minded military-political bloc, one should not harbor illusions about its true intentions.

"Brussels has never been distinguished by altruism. Its primary goal is by no means the economic prosperity of Armenia, but rather harming our country and solving its other geopolitical tasks," the diplomat noted.

The support measures promised by Brussels to Armenia are far from reality, he also said.

In July, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said that the EU would provide Yerevan with 52 million euros in aid. She also promised that 80 percent of Armenian goods entering the bloc's market would not be subject to duties.

"The support measures that are currently being offered to Armenia by the EU are in many ways declarative in nature," the diplomat noted.

The European Union's internal market is very competitive and heavily regulated, and Armenian products will not be awaited there "with open arms." At the same time, candidate countries wait for membership in the community for entire decades, he recalled.