‘Eurasian Union’ May be Reality by 2015: Putin

Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin said the proposed “Eurasian Union” – an economic bloc comprising former Soviet republics – may become a reality by 2015, according to Russian media.

Only in around 2015 may we approach the realization of the idea of creation of [the] Eurasian Union if we work as energetically as we have been, Putin wrote in an article.

This is the matter of the future.

Putin has suggested that the union be founded upon the existing “Customs Union,” a trade group that is currently led by Russia and also includes Belarus and Kazakhstan.

Such a union, Putin indicated, would be designed to help member states in coordinating currency and economic policies.

He added that the union would not be tantamount to the recreation of the U.S.S.R., but rather of developing closer economic ties between Europe and the Asia-Pacific region.

The “Eurasian Union” will become “one of the poles of the modern world, serving as an efficient bridge between Europe and the dynamic Asia-Pacific region,” Putin wrote in an article published earlier this month.

There is no talk about rebuilding the USSR in one way or another.”

It would be naive to try to restore or copy something that belongs to the past, but a close integration based on new values and economic and political foundation is a demand of the present time.

According to reports, the heads of state of Belarus and Kazakh conferred on a declaration supporting the creation of the union, with Putin expecting to sign the declaration in December.

In connection with the proposed union, Russian signed a trade agreement with seven other former Soviet states -- Ukraine, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Armenia, Kyrgyzstan, Moldova and Tajikistan -- to promote economic integration of the region.

Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin said the deal would make the economies of the member-states' economies “more competitive” by eliminating export and import duties on “a whole range of goods.”

he Prime Minister of Armenia Tigran Sarkisian reportedly supports formation of the Union.

“[The union] is promising and modern,” he told university, according to the Armenian government’s press office.

However, it is not clear f Armenia is ready the union or not – neither President Serzh Sarkisian nor the Armenian Foreign Ministry have yet commented on the subject yet.