MAY 26 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) – The Eurasian Development Bank, set up to fund projects in Eurasian Economic Union (EEU) member states, agreed to lend Kyrgyzstan $20m to develop its agriculture, media reported. The EEU will replace the Customs Union which comprises of Kazakhstan, Russia and Belarus. Kyrgyzstan aims to join later this year.
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(News report from Issue No. 186, published on May 28 2014)
MAY 27 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) – Police in Astana detained 20 people demonstrating against the proposed Eurasian Economic Union (EEU), two days before Russia, Belarus and Kazakhstan planned to sign it into existence. The EEU is designed to replace the Customs Union. Some analysts have said that it will morph from an economic club into a political group.
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(News report from Issue No. 186, published on May 28 2014)
APRIL 12 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) — It was overcrowded and barely organised but a meeting in Almaty that opposed Kazakhstan’s move towards a Russia-led Eurasian Economic Union was important.
Around 250 people, with an uneasy mix of different agendas from ultra-nationalists to human rights protesters, attended the meeting in a scruffy hotel.
The main complaints were a lack of transparency in the move and that Kazakhstan may lose its identity.
Speaking at the meeting, political commentator Dastan Kadyrzhanov said: “The Eurasian Economic Union is our Rubicon, a civilisational choice. If we pass it, there will be no way back.”
Opposition groups in Kazakhstan have a tough time. They have been hounded, detained, pushed off the streets. So for this meeting to pass off without protesters being detained was eye-catching.
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(News report from Issue No. 180, published on April 16 2014)
MAY 29 2013 (The Conway Bulletin) — At a meeting of the Russia-led Eurasian Customs Union in Astana, Kazakh President Nursultan Nazarbayev confirmed that Kyrgyzstan would join the group by 2015. Kyrgyzstan has been talking about joining the union, which includes Russia, Kazakhstan and Belarus, for the past year. Ukraine has been granted observer status.
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(News report from Issue No. 137, published on June 3 2013)
DEC. 7 2011 (The Conway Bulletin) – Underlining his unilateral principles, Uzbek president Islam Karimov used a TV speech to warn against integration in the former Soviet Union. Commentators interpreted the speech as a snub to Russian PM Vladimir Putin’s proposal of a Eurasian Union. Kazakhstan backs the idea of a Eurasian Union.
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(News report from Issue No. 69, published on Dec. 14 2011)
OCT. 4 2011 (The Conway Bulletin) – So it’s finally official. The Kremlin sees the Russia-Belarus-Kazakhstan Customs Union as a tool for further integration.
In an article for the newspaper Izvestiya on Oct. 4, Russian PM Vladimir Putin wrote of his vision for a Eurasian Union based around Moscow’s leadership emerging from the customs union. The timing of this article underlined its importance. This was Mr Putin’s first major policy statement since Sept. 24, 2011 when he said he would return as Russian president.
For Central Asia, but not yet for the South Caucasus, the customs union is already important. Kazakhstan is an enthusiastic member, Kyrgyzstan has officially applied to join and Tajikistan is thinking about it.
Russia uses the customs union as a bulwark against the growing influence of China and the West in Central Asia, a region it considers to be its natural sphere of influence.
Although Uzbekistan and Turkmenistan may be able to afford to resist, for Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan it has become politically and economically important to join the customs union.
Kazakhstan’s President Nursultan Nazarbayev can also claim to have been the first to float the idea of a Eurasian Union. He mentioned the concept during a speech at a Moscow university in 1994.
Now, 17 years later, this Eurasian Union is gaining momentum.
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(News report from Issue No. 59, published on Oct. 4 2011)