Armenia’s parliamentary speaker Alen Simonyan said his country would leave the Collective Security Treaty Organization and the Eurasian Economic Union if Russia raises the price of gas it supplies to the republic.
“If they make that decision, Armenia will make its own decision and withdraw completely from the CSTO, from the Eurasian Economic Union,” Simonyan said at a briefing for journalists on Saturday, April 4, the Russian news agency Interfax reported.
He added that he did not think it would come to that, since Armenia’s prime minister and Russia’s president had held a very productive conversation.
At a meeting with Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan, Russian President Vladimir Putin noted that Armenia receives Russian gas at a favorable price. “Today, as you know, energy prices — gas prices in Europe — are going off the charts, above $600 per thousand cubic meters. Russia sells gas to Armenia for $177.50. The difference is large. The difference is substantial,” Putin said.
Armenia has suspended its CSTO membership since 2024 and stopped paying dues to the organization. Formally, Armenia has not withdrawn, though Pashinyan said as far back as December 2024: “In essence, we already consider ourselves outside the CSTO.”
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