YEREVAN, APRIL 6, ARMENPRESS. The current situation caused not only the economic, but also the political war unleashed by the collective West against Russia is also creating new opportunities for the Eurasian integration’s participating states, despite with all its difficulties, Russian Ambassador to Armenia Sergei Kopyrkin said during a round-table entitled “EAEU opportunities and prospects after the collective West’s announcement of economic war to Russia.”

The Ambassador said Russia has always opposed and still opposes the hegemony of any state or alliance in the world, however the Western partners, despite the position of Moscow, have adopted such a political line today, and there is the current situation as a result.  

“Not only the economic, but also the overall political war, which has been unleashed by the collective West against Russia, is the catalyst of changes that has developed long ago and goes against the American model of globalization and dollar domination, which create overdue preconditions for very serious changes in the world’s political and economic architecture. And in this respect I would like to note that this, despite the great difficulties caused for Russia and our partners, is also creating new opportunities”, the Russian Ambassador said.

According to the Ambassador, Russia understands quite well that the sanctions against it will cause a serious blow to the allied states of the Eurasian space, and the isolation policy against Russia will also be carried out towards other member states of the Eurasian Economic Union. But Russia hopes that the commonality of interests of Eurasian partners, their economic connectivity will dictate the perception that it is necessary to stay together and develop together. “We are convinced that we will be able to overcome the current difficulties with joint efforts and become even stronger”, Sergei Kopyrkin said.

He considered symbolic the fact that the creation and launch of the Eurasian Economic Union, in fact, coincided with the first western sanctions applied on Russia in 2014. Later the coronavirus pandemic started with all its economic and other negative effects. Despite all the difficulties faced by the whole world, the Russian Ambassador said that the Eurasian Economic Union continued developing and showing the efficiency of the Union, the fact of being demanded and also demonstrated economic growth indicators.

“The current sanctions, of course, are unprecedented in their scale, but this is also a good impetus to move forward, also for increasing own production. And I also think that the current situation must stimulate us to accelerate the accreting of the Eurasian Economic Union with China’s “Belt and Road” initiative with a big Eurasian partnership spirit, which President Vladimir Putin has talked about”, the Russian Ambassador said.

According to him, one of the key directions of the integration partnership between these two big initiatives must be the expansion of the use of national currencies of member states, the replacement of imported goods with local production, including in those branches which show scientific-technical progress.

“In this regard the industrial cooperation between our states is gaining special importance. Like experts believe, the use of macroeconomic regulations by governments is needed in this matter, which will allow to operatively respond to the emerging challenges and threats”, Sergei Kopyrkin said.

The round-table discussion was organized by the Integration and Development research NGO and the Eurasian Expert Club.

Reporting by Aram Sargsyan