Moscow is squeezing Yerevan hard, but Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan is not backing down.

So, things just got frosty between old allies. On Monday, Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan flat-out rebuffed a demand from Vladimir Putin to hold a referendum on joining the EU. His line? Relations with Russia are in a "transformation phase", and he is hoping for "new relations" that will work because, in his words, the ties are "open and sincere."

It comes right as the Kremlin is piling on the pressure ahead of Armenia's parliamentary elections this weekend. Putin had warned last week that Armenia can't be in both the EU and the Moscow-led Eurasian Economic Union, and he pointedly said the "Ukrainian scenario" started with Kyiv's EU ambitions. He wants a vote "as soon as possible."

Pashinyan's response was pretty blunt. He said in a social media video there is no point in a referendum unless Armenia has officially applied for EU membership or is close to candidate status. Which, right now, it has not.

And then came the economic jab. On the same day the two leaders had a polite phone call, officially about the EEU summit in Kazakhstan and, awkwardly, Putin's birthday wishes to Pashinyan, Russia's agricultural watchdog announced a ban on Armenian fish imports from Monday. That matters, because about 30 percent of Armenia's farmed fish goes to Russia.

The EU was quick to call it out, accusing Moscow of trying to "hurt Armenia's economy and influence the outcome of the parliamentary elections."

Why is this happening now? Armenia is an ex-Soviet republic that has been in Russia's orbit for decades, but that relationship cracked badly after Azerbaijan's 2023 offensive. Yerevan was furious that Russian peacekeepers did not step in, and since then it has been openly courting Brussels.

That pivot has infuriated the Kremlin. Over the weekend, Moscow recalled its ambassador to Armenia for "consultations", a classic diplomatic signal that things are sour.

Armenia is still formally in the EEU, but the optics have shifted fast. Last month it hosted its first ever EU summit, and it was quite the scene. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky turned up, and in a moment Moscow will not have liked, Pashinyan was on drums while French President Emmanuel Macron sang.

For now, Yerevan is walking a tightrope, keeping one foot in the Russian bloc while flirting with Europe, and telling Putin it will choose its own timeline, not his.

— reporting via cbinewstv

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