Eurasian Customs Union

[Mher]

Re: Eurasian Customs Union

Gazprom to reduce gas price for Armenia

Gas price for Armenia in the context of country's accession to the Eurasian Economic Union will be cut to $165 per 1,000 cubic meters, Gazprom chief executive Alexei Miller said in an interview with Russia 24.

The agreement to reduce gas price was reached during the recent meeting between Miller and President of Armenia Serzh Sargsyan in Yerevan.

According to him, at the moment the price is $190 per 1,000 cubic meters, and the price level allows investment in modernization and reconstruction of the gas transportation system.

http://news.am/eng/news/264375.html

[Tsov]

Re: Eurasian Customs Union

Opinion: Foundation and Collapse of the Eurasian Economic Union (EEU) 12:13, May 12, 2015 Ashot Yeghiazaryan, Doctor in Economics From the viewpoint of political realism, the Eurasian Economic Union is a project by which Russia tries to raise its power and influence in the post-Soviet area. But it’s already a dead project, yet not born, which proves that all Moscow’s efforts towards reintegration of the post-Soviet area are doomed to fail. Factual Failure of the EEU at Astana Summit There is no doubt, that foundation of more or less serious integration unite in the post-Soviet space is only effective if the Ukraine, along with Russia, takes part in it. But the Ukraine has chosen the way of integration with the EU: Moldova and Georgia also signed an Association Agreement with the EU. As a result, even the free trade regime has been put under doubt in the CIS area. The Ukrainian events and the following sharp response by the West made Moscow make corrections in its tactics and plans in delivering its Eurasian ambitions. Plans of Astana and Minsk changed as well. In fact, they spoke against Kremlin’s efforts aimed at accelerating the integration processes, qualifying them as unsubstantiated and unjustified. As a result, in May 2014 the agreement signed between Belarus, Kazakhstan and Russia on founding the EEU in Astana took just a formal character. Actually by its current form the EEU doesn’t reflect the project, which was earlier designed by Moscow. The issues of unified policies in the fields of oil, gas and finances was supposed to resolve until 2025, which, indeed means postponing respective arrangements for an uncertain period. Regulations of such important issues like common citizenship, foreign and military policy, joint border control, sub-national parliament, common passport and visa regime, export control, as well as the provision on Russia’s right to protect the rights of its citizens in other countries have been removed from the draft. What is significant, the last point has been removed by Kazakhstan’s proposal. Besides that, imposing sanctions against Russia by the West resulted in strained relations within the Eurasian trio. Kazakhstan keeps close ties with the West and has no willing to worsen them. To avoid from the international isolation along with Russia, Belarus also seeks rapprochement with the West. It’s not accidental, that Minsk and Astana refused to join Russia’s trade war against the West. Astana and Minsk even overtly appeared against the Kremlin policy. Moreover, Kazakhstan announced rather transparently and openly, that it will leave the EEU, if its membership threatens the country’s sovereignty. Thus, absence of common position in the Eurasian trio casts doubt upon the EEU’s objective, i.e. formation of a common market to provide free movement of capital, goods, services and labor. Vague perspectives of the EEU in Central Asia It’s impossible to imagine the EEU’s future without engagement of Central Asian countries in integration processes. However, Uzbekistan, the biggest country of Central Asia, with its 30 million of population is one of the post-Soviet countries, which always tried not to have any dependency on Russia. Referring Eurasian integration, Uzbekistan upholds a stressed “anti-integration” position. Tashkent doesn’t support Eurasian projects either and criticizes them. In 2012 Tashkent suspended its membership in the CSTO. Earlier in 2008 Uzbekistan left the EurAsEC. Uzbekistan is in good ties with the NATO. As for economic and commercial penetration of the USA, the EU and China in this Central Asian country, it continues to grow. Eurasian projects confront cultural impediments in Uzbekistan as well; the role of the Russian language as a means of business turnover and the number of Russian-speaking minorities has been diminished. At large, Russia’s leverages to influence Uzbekistan are still limited. Geo-political area and geo-economics of the region remains incomplete without Uzbekistan. Turkmenistan is also among the countries opposing membership in regional unities lead by Russia. In recent years the government of Turkmenistan conducts a policy of quickly opening to the world. Russia doesn’t possess substantial political, social and economic leverages to suppress Turkmenistan. Country’s majority are Turkmens. Turkmenistan isn’t a CSTO member. Besides, the number of Turkmen labor migrants in Russia is little, i.e. money transfer from migrants doesn’t essentially influence country’s economy and social life. At large, Turkmenistan isn’t a poor country. Recently Turkmenistan succeeded to neutralize dependency from the Gazprom company, reorienting its natural gas supply to China and Iran. That’s why the country’s authorities have sufficient resources to resist Moscow’s effort to engage Turkmenistan in the EEU. Although Bishkek announced on joining the EEU, the attitude towards country’s accession is ambiguous in Kyrgyzstan. High customs fees are set up to protect Russian production from cheaper Chinese import. Kyrgyzstan has been a WTO member since 1998, which will also raise problems in case of its engagement with the EEU. That’s why Bishkek makes terms in exchange of the EEU membership, among which: direct financial assistance from Moscow, and postponing deadlines for new customs fees. Besides these conditions, there are other issues as well. Kyrgyzstan has railway construction plans, the idea of which is supported by Beijing and not welcomed by Moscow. Thus, Kyrgyzstan’s membership in the EEU in many ways is a result of a decision conditioned rather by geopolitical circumstances, than by economic ones. Tajikistan is a CSTO member like Kyrgyzstan; a Russian military base is also deployed on its territory. But till now Tajikistan keeps some distance in engagement with the EEU. Dushanbe conditions it by the membership of Kyrgyzstan, as it doesn’t have a common border with the EEU. Labor migrants greatly impact on economic ties of Tajikistan with the EEU. But inflation of Russian Ruble and hard economic conditions made hundreds and thousands of Tadjiks return home. Tajikistan’s joining the WTO on 2 March 2013 is a crucial circumstance in terms of its attitude towards the EEU. Prospects of the EEU fade in Central Asia, when it collides with Chinese economic expansion in the region. Chinese regional expansion pursues a goal to establish a buffer zone consisted of friendly states, where it will play a hegemonic role. Through the EEU, Russia tries to conduct a protectionist policy, which contradicts China’s free and open trade policy. China wants to involve Silk Road project in Asia-Pacific free trade area. It strives to remove all the obstacles in the Asia-Pacific and nearby zone to reach maximum free trade. China can’t ingest Russia’s ambitions: Central Asia has great value for Beijing. In November of the last year China declared on the initiative to construct the “Silk Road economic zone”, within the framework of which it intends to invest billions of dollars in Central Asian countries for the purpose of regional commercial development. China’s leader Si Tsinpin declared, that Beijing has allocated USD 40 billion to launch infrastructure projects in Asia (Chris Rikleton, Will the Silk Road Chinese project and the Eurasian Economic Union go hand in hand in Central Asia?). Commercial and Economic Collapse of the EEU After the USSR collapse, foreign trade turnover among new independent states has witnessed a general decline trend, i.e. commercial disintegration took the lead. Parallel to it volumes of trade turnover with other foreign partners (the EU, China, the USA, Turkey and Iran) increased, which basically tears integration area. This phenomenon is quite obvious by Russia’s example. Moreover, the statistic data for the last two years and of January-February 2015 speaks for itself. Russia’s foreign trade turnover (data by Federal Customs Service) made USD 782,9 billion in 2014 (as compared to the previous period - 95,6%). Export was USD 496,9 billion (as compared to the previous period - 94,2%), from which: far abroad – USD 453,3 billion (as compared to the previous period - 91,9%), CIS countries - USD 63,6 billion (as compared to the previous period - 86,0%). Import made USD 286,0 billion (as compared to the previous period - 90,8%), from which: far abroad countries – USD 253,9 billion (as compared to the previous period - 91,9%), the CIS countries – USD 32,0 billion (as compared to the previous period - 83,0%). This tendency was typical in 2013 as well. Russia’s foreign trade turnover (data by Federal Customs Service) made USD 83,3 billion in January-February 2015 (as compared to the same period of the previous year - 71,3%). Export was USD 57,6 billion (as compared to the same period of the previous year - 76,2%), from which: far abroad countries – USD 50,6 billion (as compared to the same period of the previous year - 77,6%), the CIS countries - USD 7,0 billion (as compared to the same period of the previous year – 65,7%). Import made USD 25,7 billion (as compared to the same period of the previous year – 62,4%), from which: far abroad countries – USD 23,1 billion (as compared to the same period of the previous year – 63,3%), the CIS countries – USD 2,6 billion (as compared to the same period of the previous year – 54,9%). Russia’s trade turnover (data by Federal Customs Service) with the EEU countries was USD 6,0 billion in January-February 2015 (by actual current prices), including export – USD 3,9 billion, and import – USD 2,0 billion. Russia’s commercial turnover with Belarus by current prices was USD 3,4 billion in January-February 2015, from which: export – USD 2,2 billion, and import – USD 1,2 billion. With Kazakhstan it was USD 2,4 billion, from which: export – USD 1,5 billion, and import – USD 0,9 billion. With Armenia it was USD 197,5 million, from which: export – USD 186,8 million, and import – USD 10,7 million. “Improving Security Policy Debates in Armenia” Program (NED) The Armenian Institute of the International and Security Affairs (AIISA)

http://hetq.am/eng/news/60164/opinion-foundation-and-collapse-of-the-eurasian-economic-union-eeu.html

[Mher]

Re: Eurasian Customs Union

[table="width: 550"]
[tr]
[td]Opinion: Foundation and Collapse of the Eurasian Economic Union (EEU)

http://hetq.am/eng/news/60164/opinio...union-eeu.html

Yep, I think at the moment the EEU has a lot more chance of becoming another organization "in name only" like the CIS, than an actual economic union. The Armenian government made the proper decision and didn't push back Putin when he came up with this idea. Now Armenia is set to regain from the EU most of what is was going to get had it signed the Associate's Agreement while being in the good graces of Russia.

[Mher]

Re: Eurasian Customs Union

Georgia hopes over Europe turn to disappointment

Neil Buckley, Tbilisi

http://www.ft.com/intl/cms/s/0/8edae8fe-fadc-11e4-84f3-00144feab7de.html#axzz3aZ20fDax

[Eddo211]

Re: Eurasian Customs Union

They deserve it.

[Haykakan]

Re: Eurasian Customs Union

Georgia hopes over Europe turn to disappointment

Neil Buckley, Tbilisi

http://www.ft.com/intl/cms/s/0/8edae...#axzz3aZ20fDax

Cant access this article. Can you post it here?

[londontsi]

Re: Eurasian Customs Union

Cant access this article. Can you post it here?

Georgia hopes over Europe turn to disappointment


Ask David Usupashvili, speaker of Georgia’s parliament, if the country’s dozen-year commitment to integration with Nato and the EU is intact despite recent political turbulence and the Ukraine conflict, and he flips the question round. Ask western leaders, he says, not us.

Tbilisi had hoped to celebrate this week securing a visa liberalisation agreement with the EU, at a summit in Riga. Instead, the plan has been delayed — Georgian officials fear for political reasons.

While the former Soviet republic did sign a groundbreaking EU association agreement and free trade deal in July last year, ordinary Georgians have felt little benefit so far. Visa-free travel would be tangible to all.

In September last year, meanwhile, even with the east Ukraine conflict raging, Georgia failed at Nato’s Cardiff summit to win a long-coveted “membership action plan”, or path to joining.

“What I’m learning from world politics is that the smaller a country is, the smaller its right to disappointment,” says Mr Usupashvili. “We have to delete the word disappointment from our vocabulary.”

But amid an economic slowdown caused partly by the recession in neighbouring Russia that has wiped a third off the value of the national currency, disappointment is registering with Georgians. It is opening the door, too, to renewed Russian influence.

A poll by the US National Democratic Institute last week showed 31 per cent of Georgians supported joining the Eurasian Union, the integration project among former Soviet states that Russia’s Vladimir Putin is setting up as a geopolitical rival to the EU. While two-thirds still backed western integration, the proportion supporting the alternative has doubled in a year.

“We need a carrot” from the west, says Eka Metreveli of the Georgian Foundation for Strategic and International Studies. “There’s the feeling that we’re trying, but nothing is happening. And Russia is here.”

Any shift back towards Russian influence would have ramifications well beyond Georgia’s borders. Since Mikheil Saakashvili led the 2003 “Rose” revolution, Georgia has been seen as an economic reform champion and democratic beacon among former Soviet republics.

Its location, moreover, is highly strategic. Oil and gas pipelines run across the country from Azerbaijan to the west that provide Europe with an alternative to Russian energy.

Mr Usupashvili points to the barely 75km-wide corridor between the breakaway region of South Ossetia, occupied by Russia since its five-day war with Georgia in 2008, and Armenia to the south, which this year joined Russia’s Eurasian Union.

If Moscow closes that gap, he notes, it controls “everything from Iran’s border to the North Pole”.

The Ukraine conflict has started to shift Georgians’ opinions towards Russia. While it caused jitters among Georgians, one foreign diplomat says it also provoked “nervous excitement” that Nato might finally fulfil a 2008 declaration that Georgia would one day join.

Instead, Nato is seen as ducking that commitment, and the west as failing Ukraine — whose conflict with Russia exploded after ex-president Viktor Yanukovich was ousted by Ukrainians when he refused to sign an EU deal.

“Many Georgians see Europe as weak and indecisive. But Putin looks like a strong guy who’s getting his way,” says Ghia Nodia, a political scientist at Tbilisi’s Ilia State University. “So people think, what exactly are the benefits from Europe? Maybe it’s silly to resist Russia so much.”

The surprise defeat of Mr Saakashvili’s government in 2012 elections by the six-party Georgian Dream coalition of billionaire businessman Bidzina Ivanishvili also played a role.

Georgian Dream has stuck to the goal of western integration, but under current prime minister Ikakli Garibashvili has sought in parallel to rebuild relations with Moscow.

A resulting removal of bans imposed by Moscow a decade ago on Georgian wine, mineral water and farm goods has boosted the economy. But it rekindled rural support for Russia, seen by farmers as a far more promising market than the EU.

The Georgian Dream government also allowed Russian TV channels, banned after the 2008 war, to broadcast in Georgia again. Pro-Russian voices, largely silenced under the previous government, can be heard on Georgian media.

“Russia’s soft power is changing the landscape,” says Ms Metreveli. “Its propaganda is getting stronger and stronger.”

Parts of Georgia’s conservative Orthodox church have found common cause with its Russian counterpart in denouncing alleged western attacks on traditional values through, for example, promotion of gay rights.

Western-leaning politicians and analysts point to a growing influence of pro-Russian groups, such as Georgia’s Eurasian Choice, a coalition of non-government organisations that claims to have 16,000 members.

But Russia is using harder power, too. In recent months Moscow has signed agreements that come close to outright annexation of Russian-occupied South Ossetia and similarly Abkhazia. Pro-Russian parties have seized on those moves to insist Georgia’s only chance of winning back its breakaway regions is through allying again with Moscow.

Still, analysts say Kremlin supporting parties are unlikely to win parliamentary elections due in October 2016. But they could form a large enough minority to prevent pro-western parties from gaining overall control.

In the meantime, says Tedo Japaridze, a veteran diplomat and chairman of the parliament’s foreign relations committee, Moscow will continue flexing its muscles — as with its huge military parade on May 9.

“People say that was a message for the west,” he says. “But it wasn’t for them, it was a message for us. To behave.”















November 2003 Mikheil Saakashvili leads pro-democracy “Rose” revolution after allegedly rigged elections. Puts the country on a pro-western course
August 2008 Five-day conflict with Russia leaves Abkhazia and South Ossetia occupied by Russian troops
September 2012 Billionaire Bidzina Ivanishvili’s Georgian Dream coalition ousts Saakashvili’s government in free elections. Ivanishvili becomes premier
October 2013 Giorgi Margvelashvili, Georgian Dream candidate, elected president as Saakashvili completes his two terms.
Months later, Saakashvili flees abroad, facing what he says are politically motivated criminal charges
November 2013 Ivanishvili stands down as premier after little over a year, hands over to handpicked successor, Ikakli Garibashvili, but remains a key decision maker
May 2014 NDI poll shows two-thirds of Georgians still support EU and Nato integration, but 31 per cent support joining the Russian-led Eurasian Union
November 2014 Four ministers resign from the Georgian Dream government and one party leaves the coalition over internal differences.
The government insists its pro-western policy is intact
May 2015 Three more ministers resign from the government, but it survives a confidence vote in parliament

[lampron]

Re: Eurasian Customs Union

[table="width: 550"]
[tr]
[td]Opinion: Foundation and Collapse of the Eurasian Economic Union (EEU)

12:13, May 12, 2015

Ashot Yeghiazaryan, Doctor in Economics

From the viewpoint of political realism, the Eurasian Economic Union is a project by which Russia tries to raise its power and influence in the post-Soviet area. But it’s already a dead project, yet not born, which proves that all Moscow’s efforts towards reintegration of the post-Soviet area are doomed to fail.

Factual Failure of the EEU at Astana Summit

What is "political realism"?
Who is this charlatan? This report reads like a re-hash of reports in the mainstream western news channels

If the EEU is about to collapse why is the EU actively trying to expand east? The regime change in Ukraine was intended to stop the EEU including Ukraine as a member

There is no doubt, that foundation of more or less serious integration unite in the post-Soviet space is only effective if the Ukraine, along with Russia, takes part in it. But the Ukraine has chosen the way of integration with the EU:

No, the previous president of Ukraine was in favor of developing relations with both Russia and the West

Does this doctor realize that Armenia's security depends on Russian weapons?

[Gevz]

Re: Eurasian Customs Union

Does this doctor realize that Armenia's security depends on Russian weapons?QUOTE]





Armenia has no future with Europe.
Armenia has no security from Europe
Armenia doesn't need Europe
Armenian products wont sell in Europe

Russia doesn't only supply 'Armenia' with weapons.......Russia supports Armenia in the United Nations( yes we know U.N = U.S etc. but it's still a big help by Russia) Armenia cannot even think about joining some gimmick organisation like the European Union.

Russia is why Armenia still exists with a population of 3 million surrounded by blood thirsty Turkish scum.

Russia is the reason why Artsakh is under Armenian control ( Yes we have a powerful - good army with brave boys BUT if the big bear doesn't want you to have Artsakh are you going to go against it?) if you think this is not true you have no clue.

Russia is a major deterrent from a 'Turkish' invasion...let's not forget back in 1992 when turkey tried to over-run Armenia what Russia was willing to do for Armenians WW3. yes WW3.



By joining EEU Armenia secured its self even better from the blood thirsty wolves in Armenia's neighbourhood. EU doesn't need Armenia it just plays the game 'We support/Want Armenia on our side' Because they just want to go against Russia it's pretty simple Armenia has nothing to offer.

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Serzh government is incompetent internally...but external affairs he is a top politician like it or hate it it's a fact. After all the things Russia has done for Armenia and after all these years being close to one another - Armenia needs EEU it might not be good right now but it will be later on.

If any Armenian goes against Russia or publishes anti-russian rubbish they are a traitor anyway - a paid traitor.

[Gevz]

Re: Eurasian Customs Union

The geo location of Armenia is only important for 1 country only and only 1 country and that is for Russia

I pray every time that Russia becomes strong and powerful because without Russia we Armenians are lost. You can call me Pro-Russian what ever you want but I care about having a country. Glad Serzh and Co are Pro-Russia.