For the last few years, Russia has eagerly promoted its grand “Eurasian” project, offering deeper economic integration with former Soviet countries. As proposed by Vladimir Putin in 2011, a Customs Union, or further, a Eurasian Union, was supposed to help the economies of the region flourish by combining their individual strengths and entering the global economy as a strong, consolidated economic entity. Putin officially stated that his proposal was based on a new reality, where to be successful was to be open, transparent and democratic—and had nothing to do with “bringing back the Soviet Union.”
In its original version, the Eurasian Union was supposed to take a good lesson from the European Union in bringing different nations voluntarily under the same roof and most certainly was not focused on any kind of alienation from the rest of the world.
Along with the members of the already established Customs Union—Belarus and Kazakhstan—the key to the success of the project was always Ukraine. Putin, as well as his advisers, clearly understood that without Ukraine, no economic or political cooperation would be sizable enough to be considered a global or even regional center of power. In addition, Ukraine’s historical importance to Russia made the case to use every means possible to win it over. With or without its embattled president Viktor Yanukovych, Ukraine had to be involved in Russia’s new Eurasian project. That is a major reason why, when Kyiv’s ‘Maidan’ revolutionists kicked Yanukovych out of power, Russia attempted to retain its influence in Ukraine.
Source: nationalinterest.org
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