The policies of Russian Regionalism and the Eurasian Economic Union

Regionalism and regional integration are among the central doctrines of states to strengthen and develop themselves in the new age. After the collapse of the Soviet Union and the power vacuum, Russia sought to rebuild the regional order and reshape the regional geopolitical system in Eurasia. From the beginning of the Vladimir Putin era (1999), Eurasianisism became the focus of Russian foreign policy. The most crucial strategy of Russian Eurasianism became Eurasian Regionalism. After several stages of the regionalism process (Eurasian Economic Community, Single Economic Market, Customs Union), Russia finally succeeded in establishing the Eurasian Economic Union (EAEU) consisting of Russia, Kazakhstan, Belarus, Armenia, and Kyrgyzstan in early 2015. The EAEU is the most developed institution of regional economic integration among post-Soviet states. The objective of this study is to evaluate Russia’s regionalism policies and explain Russia’s intentions to establish the EAEU in the new era. The research results show that the first priority of Moscow from the establishing of the Eurasian Economic Union is security, political and geopolitical issues. Otherwise, economically, this Union does not have a significant achievement for Russia. The member states of This Union are not an appropriate economic complement to each other.