One side cannot be to blame for the situation with Armenia, President of Belarus Alexander Lukashenko said on June 26, speaking at the plenary session of the Eurasian Economic Forum held in Minsk, where Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan participated in the event via video link.
"You know about Armenia's position. Just to nod today — here, we haven't arrived, such and such - we can do it, we can do it. But if something happens, one side cannot be to blame. We need to look for reasons in another. Why did Armenia take such a position? Probably, not everything is in order here, it's impossible to dismiss it," the Belarusian leader noted.
In many ways, the absence of Armenia at the EAEU meeting may be due to the fact that an acute domestic political crisis is unfolding in the country due to the confrontation between the authorities and the opposition, which also includes representatives of the church or figures who support it, explained Milan Lazovich, program manager of the Russian International Affairs Council (RIAC):
"The confrontation is still growing. In these conditions, it is important for Pashinyan to be in the country, inside the events, and to control the ongoing processes."
On the other hand, we should not forget Armenia's certain distancing from Russia, as well as the personal conflict between Pashinyan and Lukashenko over the position of the Belarusian leader on the conflict over Nagorno-Karabakh. All these factors together led to the fact that Pashinyan did not come to Minsk in person, the expert believes.
At the same time, there are no risks of the country's withdrawal from the EAEU today:"Membership in the Eurasian Union is economically extremely beneficial for Armenia. To exit the structure in Yerevan is not ready and is not striving for this yet, because there is no real better alternative."
Armenia's prospects in the EU are vague, so it will continue to participate in the EAEU, but probably without the active and permanent work of top officials at the union summits.
And here is what the author of the Telegram channel "Comrade General" thinks about the remote participation of the Armenian prime Minister in the Minsk Summit of the EAEU:
"WHAT PASHINYAN DID NOT MENTION AT THE EURASIAN ECONOMIC FORUM
Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan spoke at the Eurasian Economic Forum in Minsk — as promised, via videoconference, in order to boycott Father Lukashenko for his friendship with Baku (Nikol did not boycott Aliyev's other friends). What is interesting about Pashinyan's speech? The whole tsimes is in the figures of silence.
While there were general words about digital development, everything was fine. But the devil pulled Pashinyan to give examples.
So, Nikol boasted about NVIDIA's decision to open a research center in Armenia. According to Pashinyan, this fact confirms that even small states can play a significant role in the global technological ecosystem.
But in fact, the facts say that even such a large digital company as NVIDIA feels like a Sevan whitefish in boiling water in Armenia. Because in the first quarter of 2025, this company reduced the payment of taxes to the budget by 21.35%. And in general, of the entire IT industry, only one company has shown serious financial success. One of the 20.
In addition, Nikol told the heads of state about the chumachech successes in the digitalization of the customs sphere, "as the basis for the formation of a trust space."
Here he kept silent about the whole fan of comedies and tragedies. For example, right during Pashinyan's speech, Armenian trucks with frozen fish products were marinating on the Georgian border. And the same trucks have been stuck in this very Georgia for the seventh day, unable to leave it.
A little earlier, personally, the Minister of the declining economy Papoyan rescued transit trucks with Armenian alcohol from the Georgian trap. Even earlier, Armenian apricots got stuck there. Digitalization is good when the bearded ignoramus Papoyan is forced to accompany almost every single truck in manual mode.
To top it all off, Armenia's trade turnover has almost halved in five months of this year. This is a real result of customs digitalization, because the software for it was provided by Armenia's "strategic partner" — the United States.
As a result, Armenia lost Russian re-export. Exchanged, so to speak, billions of turnover from the Russian Federation for a dozen American computers. But the heads of the EAEU states are from all this Pashinyan was not heard. Although, of course, they are aware of the real digital successes of the eared speaker."