Putin wants Eurasian Union to compete with EU and US

Vladimir Putin (Credit: Kremlin.ru)

Madison Ruppert, Contributing Writer
Activist Post

Vladimir Putin recently detailed his plan to build a Eurasian Union somewhat reminiscent of the USSR in the Izvestia newspaper which he aims to be able to compete with the European Union and the United States.

Putin said, “We are talking about a model of a powerful supranational union capable of becoming one of the poles in the modern world.”

Putin cites the “great inheritance form the Soviet Union” as a foundation for the construction of a wholly new entity to challenge European and American dominance, although he claims that he is not aiming to create the USSR.

He says that the region “inherited an infrastructure, specialized production facilities, and a common linguistic, scientific and cultural space. It is in our joint interests to use this resource for our development.”

Putin says that while the Eurasian nations “should have closer integration based on values, politics and economics,” “We are not talking about recreating the USSR. It would be naïve to try to restore or copy what was in the past.”

However, his plan sounds astoundingly like the USSR and little of what he has revealed of the plan shows otherwise, other than his perpetual insistence that it is not the aim to recreate the former Soviet Union.

One might also be skeptical of his claims given his statement that the collapse of the USSR was “the greatest geopolitical catastrophe of the 20th century.”

He says that they will not stop at merely creating a powerful supranational union which could compete with the current poles in the balance of power, indeed they are “putting forward an ambitious task of reaching a new, higher level of integration with the Eurasian Union.”

Putin continues, “Along with other key players and regional structures, such as the European Union, the United States, China and the Asia Pacific Economic Community, it should ensure stability of global development.”

Putin seems to be aiming at a symbiotic relationship between his planned Eurasian Union and the European Union, especially when it comes to economics.

Putin says that, “An economically sound and balanced partnership between the Eurasian Union and EU can change the geopolitical and geo-economic situation of the entire continent and have a positive impact globally.”

The support for his statement is thoroughly lacking. While it sounds like a great idea, one must only look at the slowly collapsing Eurozone and the debt woes wracking the EU to see the dangers of resorting to these types of unified systems that remove sovereignty and independence.

Putin claims that, “Membership in the Eurasian Union, apart from direct economic benefits, will enable its members to integrate into Europe faster and from a much stronger position.”

Again his “direct economic benefits” might be viable in the short term but it appears that these types of supranational unions aren’t working out in the utopian fashion some might have hoped.

Putin’s plan would remove all barriers to capital flow, trade and the movement of labor between Kazakhstan, Belarus and Russia, although that is just the beginning.

He said that the supranational union will be open to new members joining and that the customs union will expand to include Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan.

Putin criticized the Ukraine, which opted to remain outside of the Eurasian Union due to their focus on European integration.

He wrote that it was the wrong choice made by some of Russia’s neighbors to integrate with Europe over a Eurasian union and likely included the claim that a Eurasian Union would help a faster integration into the EU to dissuade nations from opting out of his proposal.

Putin seems to believe that regional integration is the way to mitigate the global economic crisis, even though the EU is showing that is not the case.

Putin nonsensically mentions the EU as proof of this along with the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA), the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), and Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC).

Many people, including myself, would disagree and say that many of these groups have actually compounded the problem, especially in the case of NAFTA and the EU.

One must also realize that the concept of “spillover” is prominent in these types of unions, especially the European Union.

This allows economic issues to spillover into political ones, slowly creating the dictatorial supranational state that is the European Union which has removed the sovereignty of European nations in favor of a non-democratic body of unaccountable bureaucrats who make all of the important decisions.

While NAFTA and other agreements have yet to go that far, one would assume that a “North American Union” would slowly become the same thing that the EU has become.

It is likely the case that the Eurasian Union would begin as a trade agreement and eventually become a body of power that consumes the sovereignty of participatory states just like the USSR and EU.

This proposal comes remarkably close to the conclusion of 18-year negotiations at the Doha Round for Russia to join the World Trade Organization, or WTO.

Putin openly criticized the global trade group saying, “The process of finding new post-crisis global development models is moving forward with difficulty. For example, the Doha round has practically stopped. There are objective difficulties inside the WTO.”

As of now, Putin’s plan lacks the substance required to see any real benefits and it seems he is advocating the same type of regional integration that allows crises like the massive debt crisis in Europe to occur.

It amazes me that even the leaders who are seen as Western opposition like Putin and Ahmadinejad all propose the same globalist policies that are destroying the sovereignty and independence of nations the world over.

When it comes down to it, they are all espousing the same thing which is the destruction of sovereignty in favor of more centralized control and planning in the hands of the elite.

I don’t know about you, but I won’t have any of it and it doesn’t matter if supposedly anti-Western leaders are saying it or if Barack Obama is saying it.

It is all the same and it has yet to be proven to be effective in any way, shape or form, other than making the elite wealthier and the poor poorer of course.