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Opposition MP Tigran Abrahamyan has accused the Armenian leadership of putting the country at “great risk” after they called in a new EU monitoring mission.

The EU approved the two-year civilian mission on Monday in a move requested by Armenia. They said it will “contribute to stability in the border areas of Armenia” and facilitate an Armenian-Azerbaijani peace treaty.

In a Facebook post on Friday, Abrahamyan, who represents the opposition Pativ Unem faction, pointed out Russia’s strong criticism of the EU mission.

In a statement on Thursday, the Russian Foreign Ministry said the EU had “turned into an appendage of the United States and NATO and is carrying out a confrontational policy only bringing geopolitical competition into the region and exacerbating existing conflicts.”

It called into question the EU’s description of the mission as a “civilian” one. “We shouldn’t be deceived by the declared civilian nature of the EU mission, it is formulated in the framework of the EU’s Common Security and Defense Policy with all the attendant consequences.” It warned that the Russian peacekeeping mission in Nagorno-Karabakh and Russian border guards serving in Armenia “will react to the behavior of the EU observers taking into account the situation on the ground.”

“The Armenian authorities have succeeded in fully transferring the deep confrontation between Russia and the West to Armenia, putting the country at great risk for becoming a 'testing ground',” the MP said.