While Ukraine sees its future with Europe, not Russia !

A New Soviet Union (using free trades ?) is set on rails.

Prime Minister Vladimir Putin started an initiative to form an EU-style free trade bloc between Russia, Belarus and Kazakhstan.
Some weeks ago, Prime Minister Putin hosted trilateral talks at Moscow’s plush Ritz Carlton hotel on the final countdown toward a Single Economic Space, due to start in Jan 2012 – and a new Eurasian Economic Union a year afterward.

“We are hoping to sign as early as next year a declaration about the formation of the Eurasian Economic Union, which can and must start operating as early as 2013,” Putin told journalists on the sidelines of the forum.
Pavel Borodin, the secretary of the Russia-Belarus Union – was blunter.
“This is the basis of restoring post-Soviet space,” he told journalists. “We are one people, we have lived, we live and we continue living together. In essence, we have one country, and we cannot escape that.”
Asked if he specifically meant the restoration of the USSR, he said, “Absolutely.”
The key driver of integration appeared to be natural resources.
Belarusian Prime Minister Mikhail Myasnikovich urged businessmen to invest in his country’s privatization campaign – clearly an attempt to revive its stalled economy.
Borodin noted that Kazakhstan has over 3 trillion cubic meters of gas reserves, adding that a free-trade Eurasian Economic Union would give Russia better access to those resources.

The reciprocal effect would be giving businesses in Kazakhstan and Belarus greater access to the Russian market. But rising prices on fuel and other sectors have left experts doubting whether there will be any positive trickle-down effect for workers in the three countries.

              http://themoscownews.com/economics/20110718/188852381.html

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