Russian premier Putin calls for Eurasian Union - "No new USSR"

Oct 4, 2011, 14:03 GMT

Moscow - Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin on Tuesday called on former Soviet republics to form a Eurasian Union, but rejected the idea that he was trying to resurrect the USSR.

'It would be naive to copy something from the past,' Putin wrote in an article in Izvestiya, a wide-distribution newspaper historically considered an unofficial Kremlin publication.

The summary was Putin's first major policy paper since his announcement last week that he would run in the March 2012 presidential race, a campaign he is widely predicted to win easily.

Putin said the basis of the economic cooperation group would be a customs union between Russia, Belarus and Kazakhstan, which will come into force in 2012.

'Extensive work' is in progress to include the Central Asian ex-Soviet republics of Tajikistan and Kyrgyzstan in the customs union, and other regional states would benefit from participating as well, he said.

'We propose a model of a powerful supranational organization which is able to function in the modern world,' Putin said.

A Eurasian Union would have free-trade rules and a common legal framework similar to that of the European Union, and would form the main political and economic link between the EU and the Pacific, he said.

The agreement would however not be a mutual defence alliance replacing existing regional treaties, Putin said.

Russia's most popular politician, Putin has long been a proponent of closer economic cooperation between former Soviet republics, calling such trade 'natural ... and logical.'

The Caucasian states of Georgia, Armenia and Azerbaijan; and the Central Asian states of Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan have shown limited enthusiasm for Putin's vision, preferring to balance their trade between Russia, south-east Europe and the Middle East.

Ukraine is another holdout, with Kiev having switched its priorities repeatedly between Russia and the EU. The three Baltic former Soviet republics joined the EU in 2004.

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