PUTIN’S NEW EMPIRE: A NEW EURASIAN UNION WITH ITS OWN CURRENCY?

Tert.am
14:11 ~U 10.03.10

The Soviet Union is gradually being rebuilt as Vladimir Putin eyes
a return to the Kremlin. The man who declared the collapse of the
Communist state to be the "greatest geopolitical catastrophe of the
century" appears determined to forge a new empire, reports Times
Online.

The latest evidence emerged in a suggestion by Igor Shuvalov, First
Deputy Prime Minister in Mr Putin’s Government, that Russia may abolish
the rouble and create a common currency with Kazakhstan and Belarus.

A common currency (modelled on the euro) would give Putin an economic
lever to challenge the US dollar and the euro by creating a regional
reserve currency.

Other ex-Soviet republics would find it hard to resist the
gravitational pull of a single currency and economic space.

According to the Times Online, Armenia’s economy is almost completely
owned by Russian companies already, and neighbouring Azerbaijan would
risk Russian meddling in the frozen conflict over the Armenian enclave
of Nagorno-Karabakh.

Struggling Kyrgyzstan has already accepted a $2.15 billion USD bailout
from Moscow, and Putin was quick to extend an invitation to join
the customs union to Viktor Yanukovych, Ukraine’s new pro-Russian
President, when they met in Moscow on Friday.

Further, Aleksandr Lukashenko’s third term as President of Belarus
ends next year and he will have to show utter loyalty if Putin is to
be the only major international leader to endorse a fourth term.

A willingness to defer to Russia as members of a new Eurasian Union,
with its own currency controlled from Moscow, may be the price some
of these countries will have to pay for nominal independence.