Putin Proposes ‘Eurasian Union’ With Old Soviet Union Neighbours
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One week after announcing that he will return to presidency next year, Vladimir Putin has called for a “Eurasian Union” of former Soviet republics along the lines of the European Union.
Putin, however, denied proposing to recreate the Soviet Union, saying the new bloc would have different values.
Related: Gorbachev: Putin Has ‘Castrated’ Democracy in Russia
One week after announcing that he will return to presidency next year, Vladimir Putin has called for a “Eurasian Union” of former Soviet republics along the lines of the European Union.
Putin, however, denied proposing to recreate the Soviet Union, saying the new bloc would have different values.
Related: Gorbachev: Putin Has ‘Castrated’ Democracy in Russia
[quote]”There is no talk about rebuilding the USSR in one way or another. It would be naive to try to restore or copy something that belongs to the past, but a close integration based on new values and economic and political values is a demand of the present time,” said Putin in an article to the daily newspaper Izvestia. [/quote]
In Putin’s grand vision of a “Eurasian union”, the bloc would become of ‘one of the poles of the modern world’ and a rival to the United States, the European Union and Asia. This raises the spectre of the Russian prime minister’s imperial designs – coming from the man who once dubbed the Soviet Union’s collapse as the greatest geopolitical catastrophe of the 20th century.
[quote]”We received a big legacy from the Soviet Union – infrastructure, current industrial specialization, and a common linguistic, scientific and cultural space. To use this resource together for our development is in our common interest.”[/quote]
Related: Russia’s Finance Minister Resigns After Heated Televised Confrontation With Medvedev
