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A seismic shift in Armenia’s foreign policy that has seen it forge closer relations with the European Union is not a threat to Moscow, the country’s ambassador in Brussels insisted amid increasingly tense relations with the Kremlin.

“Armenia’s geography means it historically and practically has so many connections with Russia that only phantasmagoric people think Armenia would take the suicidal step of trying to undermine Russian interests in the region,” Tigran Balayan, the country’s envoy to the EU, told POLITICO in an interview.

“The Armenia-EU relationship is based on Armenian national interests. Currently, our national interest demands that we have exemplary relations with the EU and all its member states,” he said.

“That doesn’t exclude bilateral good relations with Russia, and that’s something we want to explain to our Russian colleagues,” he added.

Earlier this month, at a meeting between Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen and U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken, the EU unveiled a €270 million package designed to help bolster the economic independence and resilience of the former Soviet republic. Russia currently has an effective monopoly over Armenia’s energy networks, railways and imports of key goods like grain.

Armenia has now suspended its membership of the Moscow-led CSTO military alliance, invited U.S. troops to stage joint drills in the country, and depends on an EU civilian monitoring mission to deter clashes along its tense border with Azerbaijan. Meanwhile, it has stepped up efforts to avoid falling foul of Western sanctions on Russia, working to prevent the export of sensitive goods that could be used by Moscow’s forces occupying Ukraine.

But, according to Balayan, who heads Armenia’s EU delegation, that shouldn’t be seen as a “pivot to the West” at the expense of Russia.

“When we are talking about these issues with Russian diplomats, and I tell them what we are doing, I’ve never received any counterargument as to why we shouldn’t — how European and American investments into Armenia’s economy could harm Russian interests,” he said.