Russia creates new partnership with ex-Soviet bloc

Astana, Kazakhstan: Russian President Vladimir Putin on Thursday signed a deal creating an economic union with ex-Soviet states Belarus and Kazakhstan, with Ukraine conspicuously absent after it turned its back on Moscow.

“Russia, Belarus and Kazakhstan are going over to a fundamentally new level of cooperation,” Mr Putin said at the signing ceremony in the Kazakh capital of Astana.

The newly created Eurasian Economic Union will come into force on January 1, 2015. It guarantees free circulations of goods, services, capital and the work force and means that the members have to agree on certain areas of economic policy.

The project is hugely symbolic for Mr Putin, who in 2005 called the breakup of the Soviet Union “the biggest geopolitical disaster” of the 20th century.

“The agreement signed really has epoch-making historic significance,” Mr Putin said, “This strengthens the competitiveness of our countries in the world economy.” Two other ex-Soviet states, Armenia and Kyrgyzstan, are about to join, he said.

But the union failed to secure the participation of Ukraine, a country of 46 million with a potentially strong industrial sector. “We lost some along the way: I mean Ukraine,” Belarussian President Alexander Lukashenko said.