The announcement was made in the Russian Izvestia daily, with three major Russian press agencies – RIA-Novosti, ITAR-TASS, and Interfax – releasing further details as to the proposed Eurasian Union.
Putin’s proposed bloc would “build on the experience of the European Union and other regional coalitions”
The move comes after last month’s announcement that Vladimir Putin (pictured left) will run for President of the Russian Federation in March 2012.
It also comes days after Warsaw’s Eastern Partnership Summit, a political drive from the EU to bring six post-Soviet states closer politically and economically to Europe. The meeting was marked by the absence of Belarus, however.
Competing sphere of influence?
In the text, the Russian Prime Minister underlines that such a grouping should become “a model of a powerful supranational union capable of becoming one of the poles in the modern world.”
“We are not talking about recreating the USSR,” Putin writes, however, saying that “it would be naive to try to restore or copy what was in the past. But time dictates that we should have closer integration based on values, politics and economics.”
The countries of the Eurasian Union would “together be able to join the global leaders of economic growth,” according to Putin.
The Eurasian Union would further economic integration following the creation in July 2010 of a customs union between Russia, Belarus and Kazakhstan, with a Common Economic Zone (CEZ) between the countries coming into force on 1 January 2012.
Both Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan are already expected to join the CEZ in the future.
Ukraine looks west...
While Moscow is keen on the Ukraine joining the proposed Eurasian Union’s structures, Kyiv is reported to have turned down such offers, arguing that it has already decided to integrate with the EU.
An Association Agreement between the 27-nation bloc and Ukraine is expected to be ready for signing by the end of 2011. (jb)
Source: PAP/BBC/The Daily Telegraph (UK)