The Eurasian Union as a Tool of Russian Geopolitics
205Soviet republics have been facing a wide range of challenges arising from
the complex political, economic, and social transformation of their state
systems for more than twenty years now.
In this regard, Russia introduced its first plans for economic
integration towards the former Soviet space, as Russia, Belarus, and
Ukraine initiated the establishment of the Commonwealth of the
Independent States (CIS) immediately after the collapse of the Soviet
Union.^15 A further eight former Soviet republics joined the CIS afterwards.
At present, the CIS consists of eleven member states from Eastern Europe
(Russia, Belarus, Moldova, and Ukraine), from the South Caucasus
(Azerbaijan and Armenia), and from Central Asia (Kazakhstan, Tajikistan,
Uzbekistan, Turkmenistan, and Kyrgyzstan). They predominantly use the
regional organization format as a platform for consultation and exchange
over socio-economic and security-related issues. With the establishment
of the CIS, various regional integration initiatives took place among the
countries from the former Soviet space. Moreover, numerous bilateral,
trilateral, and multilateral networking arrangements arose, in particular
within the scope of economy and trade. On this basis, the CIS countries
set up the principles of regional cooperation back in the 1990’s, which
later provided the basis for Eurasian regional integration.^16
One of the significant steps towards economic integration in the
1990’s was the Treaty on Increased Integration in the Economic and
Humanitarian Fields.^17 The treaty was an arrangement between Russia,
Kazakhstan, Belarus and Kyrgyzstan on the creation of a free trade area as
well as a common market for goods, services, capital, and labour.^18 Four
years later, Tajikistan joined the four countries, and they signed a Treaty
on the Customs Union as well as on the Single Economic Space^19 in 1999.
Moreover, the five countries also created another regional organisation
aimed at promoting Eurasian integration, which was called the Eurasian
Economic Community.^20 Only after the establishment of the Eurasian
Economic Community, and in the course of the accession of Russia within
the World Trade Organization (WTO),^21 were the attempts at creating a
(^15) Official web page of the CIS: http://e-cis.info/index.php?id=2.
(^16) Ibid.
(^17) Treaty on Increased Integration in the Economic and Humanitarian Fields of 29
March 1996.
(^18) Ibid.
(^19) Treaty on the Customs Union and on the Single Economic Space of 26 February
1999.
(^20) Agreement on the Foundation of the Eurasian Economic Community.
(^21) Official web page of WTO on the Accession of the Russian Federation: