The Eurasian Union as a Tool of Russian Geopolitics
215On that basis, Russia will aim at pursuing geopolitical objectives as
part of the agenda of the Eurasian Union, which will go beyond the long-
term economic and trade objectives. Thus, the success of Eurasian
regional integration will particularly depend on Russia’s growing
economic and political weight in international and regional forums, as
well as on its stronger self-confidence about its increased geopolitical
leadership in international affairs. Moreover, the Eurasian Economic
Union will be capable of fulfilling geopolitical purposes in the long-term
perspective, since Russia has already indicated willingness to exert
influence in the post-Soviet area. Therefore, Moscow sees new
opportunities to affect the national decision making processes in the CIS
countries through the establishment of the Eurasian Union. In this regard,
the current relations between Russia, on the one hand, and Ukraine,
Moldova, and Armenia on the other hand, illustrate that Russia is willing
to exert stronger political and economic pressure on some CIS countries,
though with different means, in order to affect domestic decision making
in favour of integration towards the Eurasian Union. From the Russian
point of view, the Eurasian Union has to become a regional integration
organisation, which can challenge the position of the European Union in
the Asian markets, but can play the role of a bridge between Europe and
Asia at the same time.
Furthermore, scenario 2 assumes that Russia can help the other two
members of the Customs Union or even other CIS countries on their way
to accession towards the World Trade Organization. Moscow sees good
opportunities in the short and middle term to expand the market and trade
position of the Eurasian Union through the faster integration of all
member and candidate states from CIS into prestigious international
economic institutes such as the WTO. On that basis, Russia sees good
chances to gain greater economic weight through the establishment of the
Eurasian Economic Union.
Another important aspect is that the Russian attempts at regional
integration do not regard foreign policy and security related issues as part
of the agenda of the future Eurasian Economic Union, since the regional
economic integration has been the central focus of activities so far.
However, most of the CIS countries still have to deal with unstable
political and economic systems as well as numerous security threats. For
this reason, Moscow is keen to ensure that a part of these issues could be
discussed or even transferred within the institutionalised integration
framework of the Eurasian Economic Union, once other CIS countries
also start applying for membership. From today's viewpoint, Kazakhstan
explicitly refuses the extension of the agenda of the Eurasian Union