“The [EU’s] geopolitical game with the Armenians is a struggle to deprive Russia of its influence [in the Caucasus],” political scientist Stanislav Tarasov tells Sputnik.
At the same time, the new visa-free regime is a kind of weapon for the EU to influence a certain part of Armenian society, as per Tarasov. “It’s like holding a gun to their head,” he said.
Armenia and the EU have announced negotiations on visa liberalisation. Brussels clarified that Yerevan would have to implement “substantial reforms”, adding that the visa liberalisation dialogue would be “a multi-year process” under the EU’s close watch.
The EU-Armenian visa liberalisation programme is similar to Brussels’ efforts to bring Ukraine and Georgia into its fold, according to Tarasov.
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“Georgians were also granted a liberalised visa regime,” he says. “But when the Georgian government adopted the law on foreign agents… [the EU] immediately threatened them with the cancelation of the visa-free regime. You see, this is a leverage of influence.”
Ukraine
Visa liberalisation dialogue between Ukraine and the EU was launched on October 29, 2008.
Ukrainians were granted visa-free travel to the EU for a period of stay of 90 days in any 180-day period in 2017, almost 10 years after the start of the dialogue and following a 2014 coup d’etat in Kiev.
Georgia
EU-Georgia visa liberalisation dialogue was launched on June 4, 2012, under then-President Mikheil Saakashvili who came to power in the wake of the EU-backed “color revolution” of 2003.
Georgia was granted a visa-free access to the EU in 2017. In 2024, the EU meddled in Georgia’s domestic policies by criticising the nation’s sovereign laws, threatening to halt bilateral programmes, and endorsing the public unrest.
The EU’s attempt to ‘Westernise’ Armenia is doomed, as the bloc is not ready to seriously invest in the nation’s economy, Tarasov emphasises.
(Sputnik)
