The CSTO members build a defensive system – from information and politic to logistics and equipment — Alexander Alexandrov

“In 2019, we will hold six exercises on the territory of four countries: Belarus, Kyrgyzstan, Russia and Tajikistan, – Valery Semerikov said, answering journalists’ questions. – The total number of forces involved, according to our calculations, will be about 12 thousand”.

During these operational and strategic exercises of the CSTO Joined forces “Combat brotherhood – 2019,” as reported, an entire complex of measures of prevention or deterrent, as well as resolution of military conflict with the subsequent restoration of peace will be worked out in a logical sequence. National contingents of troops will work out different tasks as parts of separate episodes of one untied work-frame of a single military-political situation with a single strategic plan.... 

The Vineyard of the Saker

The CSTO members build a defensive system – from information and politic to logistics and equipment
Alexander Alexandrov for the Red star newspaper

Translation by Scott Humor

Ruslan Ostashko — Putin took away Lukashenko’s chance to sell Russian oil to Poroshenko

If you are following either oil or this part of the world.

The Vineyard of the Saker

Putin took away Lukashenko’s chance to sell Russian oil to Poroshenko

Ruslan Ostashko

Translated by Scott Humor

Vladimir Odintsov — Kyrgyzstan has Officially Joined the EAEC

Recently Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan have opened the customs border which marked Kyrgyzstan’s acquiring of the status of a full member of the Eurasian Economic Community (EAEC). Since out of all the countries of the Community Kyrgyzstan has a common border only with Kazakhstan, customs posts were dismantled at eight checkpoints of the Kyrgyz-Kazakh border, while all the external border posts of Kyrgyzstan were modernized on the funds allocated by Russia and Kazakhstan (300 million dollars) . Now the Kyrgyz Republic is using the common customs tariffs and product requirements established by the technical regulations of the Community. 

Businesses in Kyrgyzstan are now compelled to comply with the common quality requirements, but for the main export product of Kyrgyzstan – migrant workers – the “golden age” has officially begun. Migrants will now be freed from passing examinations and acquiring labor patents in Russia, it will no longer be necessary for them to register locally within a month after crossing the border with Russia. Kyrgyz citizens can go to work to Russia while having only the internal Kyrgyz passport and the only demand they have to fulfill it to sign an employment contract, as do citizens of other EAEC members states – Kazakhstan, Belarus, Armenia. Their family members will be eligible to apply for social security in Russia, enjoying the benefits of free medicine and education….

First appeared: http://journal-neo.org/2015/09/04/kyrgyzstan-has-officially-joined-the/

New Eastern Outlook

Kyrgyzstan has Officially Joined the EAEC

Vladimir Odintsov

Ed Dolan — Does Putin’s Proposed Eurasian Currency Union Make Sense?

Does a common currency for the EAEU make sense? Not in economic terms, but perhaps there is a political subtext that makes the proposal more understandable....

All this leaves us wondering what Putin is thinking as he pushes the seemingly unpromising idea of an EAEU currency union. I see two possibilities.
One is that neither Putin nor his advisors have a good grasp of economics. The marginalization of most of the sounder economic thinkers that he listened to earlier in his Presidency favors this interpretation.

The other possibility is that he understands that a currency union among a structurally diverse grouping of sovereign states is a bad idea, but he thinks that he can do something about that pesky problem of sovereignty. In this interpretation, the EAEU currency union is just a foot in the door. The ultimate project is for bringing the ruble to Kazakhstan, Belarus and Armenia—perhaps ultimately to Ukraine, Latvia, and beyond—in the same way he brought the ruble to Crimea.

Kazakh President Nursultan Nazarbayev and Belarus President Alexander Lukashenko, who were present at the meeting with Putin, were reportedly cool to the idea of a currency union. Neither of them is an economist, but both are wily political operators. It is likely that they are aware of the threat to their countries’ sovereignty inherent in the project. Time will tell if they are able to stand up to Putin.

When all is said and done, currency unions are about political integration more than economic benefit, since they involve limitation of national sovereignty in favor of the institutional arrangements of the union. As we are seeing in the case of the EU. It's also the case with federalization, which was a big issue at the time of the founding of the United States of America. Currency unions can be highly successful or a disaster, depending more on political interests than economic ones.

The way the world order is emerging as a result of globalization is that several political entities will dominate socially, politically and economically because of their sheer size and level of organization — North America (the US and Canada), China, and India. Therefore, there is pressure on other blocs to cooperate in order to have a comparable seat at the table. This was one the reasons for the creation of the EU and EZ, for example. Since the collapse of the USSR, it makes sense for countries of the region to do the same rather than be sitting ducks for colonization, relegated to providing natural resources and cheap labor to the rich and powerful blocs, in the process of globalization. Latin America is awakening to this also, as is Africa.

Ed Dolan's Econ Blog
Does Putin’s Proposed Eurasian Currency Union Make Sense?

Ed Dolan

David Lane — Eurasian integration could offer a counterpoint to the EU and the United States, but only in close co-operation with states like India and China

Really about building an alternative to counter neoliberal globalization under US hegemony on Western terms.

The argument here is the familiar one, articulated by Margaret Thatcher during the time of Gorbachev: ‘there is no alternative to the neo-liberal model’....

Chinese developments in the past twenty years are a clear alternative to neo-liberalism....

The dynamics of the world system – particularly the rise of semi-core countries and the relative decline of the still dominant United States – leads to a longer term scenario, the developments of counterpoints, of which a Eurasian Union might become an important constituent.

But a Eurasian Union alone could not mount a very serious challenge to the hegemonic core. To build any significant alternative to the neo-liberal global order would need combination with other regions in semi-core countries – particularly the BRICS or members of the Shanghai Cooperative Organisation. Such economic alternatives could prioritise economic development, channel investment and provide employment through administrative forms of collective economic coordination. The ideology is conducive to policies requiring companies to exercise greater social responsibility – to employees, consumers, suppliers and to the environment.

A Eurasian Union could legitimate a different state system and more collectivist traditional values including those developed in Russia, Kazakhstan and Belarus in the past. Such developments would provide the basis for a more pluralist and multi-polar world. It would have as an economic base a capitalist alternative – a type of organised national capitalism.

London School of Economics Blog
Eurasian integration could offer a counterpoint to the EU and the United States, but only in close co-operation with states like India and China
David Lane | Academician of the Academy of Social Sciences and an Emeritus Fellow of Emmanuel College at the University of Cambridge