Boris Nemtsov and Vladimir Milov, Putin Itogi: Nezavisimyy Ekspertnyy Doklad (Moscow: Novaya Gazeta, 2008), 54.
42.
Eugene B. Rumer, “Russian Foreign Policy beyond Putin,” Adelphi Paper No. 390 (London:
The International Institute for Strategic Studies, 2007), 24.
43.
Anders Åslund, “The End Seems Near for the Putin Model,” The Washington Post (February 26, 2010).
44.
It led in South Africa to critical comments. One economist “berated the government
for simply replacing Western corporations plundering Africa’s natural resources with
a new group of what he called ‘sub-imperialist’ powers, the Brics.” (Peter Fabricius,
“Brics Summit Important for SA,” IOL News (March 22, 2013).)
45.
Alain Faujas, “La création de la banque de développement des Brics renvoyée à 2014,”
Le Monde (March 29, 2013).
46.
“Russia Offers S. Africa Help with Nuclear Power,” RIA Novosti (March 26, 2013).
47.
“Russian, South African Presidents Sign Declaration on Strategic Partnership,” ITAR-TASS (March 26, 2013).
48.
Cf. Michael Schuman, “Should BRICS Become BRIICS?” Time (March 3, 2010). Cf. also Karen Brooks, “Is Indonesia Bound for the BRICS?” Foreign Affairs 90, no. 6 (November/December 2011).
49.
Martyn Davies, “Indonesia and Turkey Top Brics Contenders,” Business Day (South Africa) (March 3, 2013).
50.
Ruchir Sharma, “Broken BRICs: Why the Rest Stopped Rising,” Foreign Affairs 91, no. 6 (November/December 2012), 4–5.
Chapter 5
The Eurasian Union
Putin’s Newest Imperial Project
On October 8, 2011, Vladimir Putin launched a new project, when he published in the
paper Izvestia an article with the title “A New Integration Project for Eurasia: The Future That
Is Born Today.” In this article he announced the creation of a “Eurasian Union.” The
Union, he wrote, would be “an open project.” The three countries of the Customs Union—Belarus,
Russia, and Kazakhstan—formed the core of this new Union. However, wrote Putin, “we
hope for the accession of other partners, and first of all of the countries of the
CIS.”[1] This was the first time, after the establishment of the CIS in December 1991, that
the Kremlin launched an integration initiative that intended to incorporate the quasi-totality
of the former Soviet Union. Putin explicitly denied that it was an attempt “to recreate,
in one form or another, the USSR.” On the contrary, he said his project was inspired
by the example of the European Union. Like the EU the Eurasian Union would develop
itself through a process of deepening and enlargement. It would, like the EU, also
have its own supranational organs, such as a Commission and a Court.
Precursors of the Eurasian Project: Igor Panarin and Aleksandr Dugin
