YEREVAN, February 6. /TASS/. Armenia's rapprochement with Western countries poses challenges to Armenian-Russian relations due to the EU's hostile attitude towards Moscow, Russian ambassador to Armenia Sergey Kopyrkin believes.

In an interview with Rossiya-24, the Russian diplomat admitted that the tectonic changes taking place in the world cannot but affect the South Caucasus region.

"As you know, Armenia is currently pursuing such a broad diversification of its foreign policy relations, and a very significant element of this policy is rapprochement with Western countries, the European Union, and the United States. We know that the EU is currently pursuing a hostile policy towards the Russian Federation and, in general, is openly signaling to its partners that they need to support this policy, including sanctions. Of course, this creates new challenges to our relations and requires a very reasonable, wise and balanced approach from both sides, as well as strategic foresight," he said.

The ambassador said that this situation requires Armenian-Russian relations to adapt to new realities, to "grow up" to preserve the important things that united and unites countries and peoples.

"Here a very significant and key element is the high-level dialogue, which, fortunately, is underway, there have been several high-level meetings. In particular, we appreciate that Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan attended our celebrations on the occasion of the 80th anniversary of victory in the Great Patriotic War, and the developing inter-parliamentary. Last year Chairman of the Federation Council Valentina Ivanovna Matvienko visited Armenia for the first time in quite a long time, and foreign ministers met. All this, of course, is very important to compare positions, comprehend what is happening and work out some joint ways to preserve and develop our relations in the new realities," Kopyrkin said.