Russia: Eurasian Union

The idea of a Eurasian Union was first proposed by Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin in an Izvestia op-ed, on October 5, 2011. It aims to integrate the member countries of the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) into a customs and economic union and ultimately to build a supra-national alliance of sovereign countries.

Russia's plan is to start with five CIS countries (Russia, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Armenia, and Kyrgyzstan), and then expand the Eurasian Union to include all former Soviet republics, and beyond that, to cover the Asia-Pacific region.

A central component of the Eurasian Union, the Eurasian Economic Union was launched in 2015. Free flow of products, services, capital and labor within the union is envisaged by 2025, and the final goal is to broaden the union into one similar to the European Union, with a unified market benefiting 170 million people.

The prospects for aligning the Eurasian Union framework with the Belt and Road Initiative appear promising. The latter will buttress Russia's efforts to shift the center of gravity of its economic development to Siberia and the Far East, to bridge the gap between its Asian and European parts, and to propel the process of building a fledgling Eurasian Union.

俄羅斯“歐亞聯(lián)盟”

2011年10月5日，時(shí)任俄羅斯總理普京在俄《消息報(bào)》發(fā)表署名文章，提出了“歐亞聯(lián)盟”的發(fā)展理念?！皻W亞聯(lián)盟”旨在逐步融合獨(dú)聯(lián)體國(guó)家，打造統(tǒng)一的關(guān)稅聯(lián)盟和經(jīng)濟(jì)空間 ；通過(guò)提升獨(dú)聯(lián)體地區(qū)一體化的程度與層次，最終建立起擁有超國(guó)家機(jī)構(gòu)的主權(quán)國(guó)家聯(lián)盟。俄羅斯將以獨(dú)聯(lián)體國(guó)家為突破口，逐漸將“歐亞聯(lián)盟” 的范圍由現(xiàn)在的俄羅斯、白俄羅斯、哈薩克斯坦、亞美 尼亞、吉爾吉斯斯坦共5個(gè)前蘇聯(lián)加盟共和國(guó)擴(kuò)大到整個(gè)前蘇聯(lián)“版圖”，最后輻射到亞太地區(qū)。歐亞經(jīng)濟(jì)聯(lián)盟作為“歐亞聯(lián)盟”的關(guān)鍵環(huán)節(jié)，已于 2015年正式啟動(dòng)，預(yù)計(jì)在2025年實(shí)現(xiàn)商品、服務(wù)、資金和勞動(dòng)力的自由流動(dòng)，最終將建成類似于歐盟的經(jīng)濟(jì)聯(lián)盟，形成一個(gè)擁有1.7億人口的統(tǒng)一市場(chǎng)?！皻W亞聯(lián)盟”與“一帶一路”的戰(zhàn)略對(duì)接前景廣闊。絲綢之路經(jīng)濟(jì)帶對(duì)于推動(dòng)俄羅斯將經(jīng)濟(jì)發(fā)展的重心東移到西伯利亞和遠(yuǎn)東地區(qū)，縮小其亞洲部分與歐洲部分的經(jīng)濟(jì)差距，建成“歐亞聯(lián)盟”有著重要意義。