Publication

This paper addresses the Eurasian Economic Union (EEU), launched on January 1 2015, and contends the project’s integration process demonstrates that the EEU has become primarily a political project at the expense of its economic attributes. The authors also contend that Russia’s annexation of Crimea and the conflict in eastern Ukraine have revealed that the real reason for the EEU is to reinforce Russian influence in the post-Soviet region and to isolate the post-Soviet countries from the West and China. Finally, they discuss the implications of these attributes for the project’s future and the position of the member states towards the project.