On August 8, Serzh Sargsyan will interrupt his holidays to meet with the president of Russia Vladimir Putin in Moscow. Both the Armenian and Russian experts affirm the key issue to be discussed at that meeting will be Armenia’s accession to the Eurasian Union.
Sure, the point is about an agreement since the union does not exist yet. Russia will just try to make sure through pledges by Armenia that the latter will join the union still to be formed.
This is not a very attractive prospect for Armenia because it intersects with the European Union which has completely different rules, so Armenia needs to choose.
But it is not just a matter of choosing, but it is rather a matter of telling Russia about the choice. It is clear to the Armenian authorities that Europe and the West in general is preferable for a prospect of development of the country.
Proceeding right from this circumstance, the power of Armenia has intensified relations with Europe and the U.S. in recent years.
But right this fact pushes Russia towards stressing the Eurasian issue.
Years ago, Marxist David Hakobyan revealed a short talk that happened between him and Serzh Sargsyan during a roundtable that the latter used to organize.
The Marxist said that he had affirmed at one of these meetings that it was necessary to clearly tell Russia about our interests and position and Serzh Sargsyan had answered: “Do you think it is easy to talk to the president of Russia?”
This happened in 2008, when the March 1 events, the presidential elections were fresh, when the oppositional rallies were crowded, the society was angry, the economic crisis was approaching etc.
Four years have already passed. Has it become easier for Serzh Sargsyan to talk to the president of Russia?
Sargsyan seems to have succeeded in easing the political intolerance; the opposition is no longer as aggressive and crowded as it was before, the March 1 issue is not so sharp, the economy, according to the official data, seems to be growing.
But all this could hardly have rendered it easier for Serzh Sargsyan to talk to Russia. The point is that all this is just the external expressions of the real problem and the real difficulty. The real issue is the low quality of the system, the absence of the constitutional order which deprives the power of the public legitimacy and the possibility to talk to more powerful centers.
It will always be difficult for Serzh Sargsyan or any other president of Armenia to talk to the president of Russia unless the language of the power used with all the layers of the society changes, in addition, I don’t mean cosmetic but systemic changes.
The language of the power has not undergone a systemic change in the last four years. The systemic language used with the society is still the same consequently it is impossible to change the language of the system with foreign political centers. There have been exceptionally cosmetic changes which can’t have an essential impact.
In this case, everything depends on the language those centers will use when talking to Armenia.
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