Interview with Karapet Rubinyan, head of the Online Liberals’ Alliance initiative
– Russia, Belarus and Kazakhstan have signed the resolution on integration with the Eurasian economic union, agreement on Eurasian economic committee and its charter initiated by Russia’s PM Vladimir Putin last week. What is the goal of this initiative on part of Russia?
– They are doing these things on purpose because starting from January 1 only the agreement on free economic zone would be in force. Putin’s initiative on the Eurasia zone is more economic and long-term issue. But now they are busy with pre-election issues and pay more attention to the mentioned union. In fact the idea is new and unclear, thus it is only in the interests of those who are waiting for the elections. That is the reason why they are exaggerating this issue and presenting as something very big, but in fact there is nothing extraordinary in that initiative. It is only about creation of a common economic zone for those three countries. The funny thing is that there is already a union-state made by Russia and Belarus, something like an imitated skeleton, and now they are creating something else, which according to its definition is weaker than the previous one. When they ask the president of Belarus what will happen with the previous one, he says that if the new one develops enough, the first one, which is a stronger format, will be dissolved in this new format. They are creating some funny configurations.
– Why did Russia initiate this Eurasian union? Is this against the European Union or it has a different goal?
– Putin does not or cannot hide his political preferences. He thinks that the collapse of the Soviet Union is a tragedy for the Russian people and statehood. In fact he named the former USSR as Russia. To be honest I think that Putin wants to recover the USSR, or in other words, the Russian empire. He wants to do that but I can’t say whether he will be able to do that or no. Maybe the idea is not so important for him but for the election purposes it will give some light to his campaign.
– Do you think the initiative signed by these three countries will have future? Will the Eurasian union come true?
– I think no, if it is the real wish of those three countries. But we should not also exclude the possibility that they may force countries such as Armenia, which does not have legitimate power and is relying on Russia.
– Will Armenia join that union? Last month PM Tigran Sarsgyan signed the agreement on creation of free trade zone in CIS.
– I think that it is in Armenia’s interests to integrate with Europe. In fact this project has been existing in our country for a long time and the officials do not refuse this fact. Integration with stagnated country such as Russia can never replace the benefits of integration with Europe. Russia is tricking by saying that if you want to integrate with Europe, we want to do that too. However it is not true because Russia does not want to integrate with Europe; it wants to be another pole and compete with Europe and the US. Life has shown that Russia has been losing in this competition. It is a long time that Russia is not a developed country in terms of technology and science thus I don’t understand what will integration give to us.
– You said that for the Armenian authorities without legitimacy Russia is a basement to rely on. Elections are approaching and the authorities will need that basement for support again. Don’t you think that in answer to their support Russia may demand from the Armenian authorities to join this Eurasian union?
– Yes, from that prospective I expect everything from our authorities.
– Long before the initiative on the Eurasian union the CIS was created, which was another format of a likewise initiative. What did the first format give to the member countries? What is the goal of creation a second format?
– In this post-soviet zone dead organization are being created and I think there will be more. We spoke about the Russia-Belarus format, the Eurasia format, and there is also collective security treaty organization, in which it is not clear who is responsible for what. For Armenia it is not clear who will be the guarantee of its security. These are artificial organizations initiated by Russia in order to satisfy its imperial ambitions. However, the history and processes are moving to another direction; Russia is going back and it is a country that will lose.
– Russia sometimes blames Armenia of “cutting deals” with the West. Sometimes they apply pressure and make announcements. In which direction should our country turn with the face?
– I think that our country does not have orientation and a clear policy. Those who are on power only want to keep their power even for one more day and embezzle.
– You have just returned from Russia. What opinions are there about the Eurasian union initiative?
– There will be parliamentary elections in Russia in several days and I did not see a real competition there. There is no interest on part of the people either. It is the same as in the Soviet Union; everyone complains of the leadership but everyone believes that it is impossible to change anything. They have got used to the reality. Nobody suspects that the ruling party will have majority in Duma and Putin will be the next president.