Putin Wants to Create Eurasian Union With Former USSR Countries

[LvivLovers 39]

http://www.foxnews.c...test=latestnews

Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin called for the creation of a Eurasian economic union in an article published Tuesday, as he prepares to return to the Kremlin after the March presidential elections.

The country aims to build the "Eurasian Union" on the base of the existing Customs Union, a trade group that includes Kazakhstan and Belarus, Putin wrote in an article in the Russian newspaper Izvestia. The statement represented another step in the country's drive to rebuild economic ties between former Soviet republics.

Putin said the talk of creation the Eurasian Union is not about "the recreation of the USSR" but of building a connection between Europe and the Asia-Pacific region. Putin said that the union, which is open for new members, will aim to closer coordinate the economic and currency policies of its member states.

"We are not going to stop there and are setting an ambitious goal -- to achieve an even higher integration level in the Eurasian Union," Putin wrote in Izvestia.

Russia's ambition previously caused problems in its World Trade Organization accession talks, which the country has been involved in almost since the collapse of the Soviet Union and hopes to finalize this year.

The first step toward the unionl will be made Jan. 1, when the Customs Union members are planning to create the so-called Common Economic Space, which will coordinate its members' macroeconomic policies, competition rules and agriculture subsidies, among other issues.

About two years ago, Putin shocked the WTO by saying that his country would apply to join the trade body as a group with Belarus and Kazakhstan, but the plan was eventually dismissed.

Edited October 4, 2011 by LvivLovers

[1HappyGuy 45]

Putin will say they create a union, but it will be "Russia wants to do this and the others had better do what Russia wants".

[Bad_Daddy 2,209]

Tsar Putin must be getting bored again. He has these grandeur illusions of creating a comparable EU with countries such as Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan and Belarus.

[Bad_Daddy 2,209]

http://www.heraldsun.com.au/news/breaking-news/vladimir-putins-scuba-discoveries-a-sham-spokesman-admits/story-e6frf7jx-1226159884857

ol Vlad is suffering from small ####### syndrome methinks.

Vladimir Putin's scuba 'discoveries' a sham, spokesman admits

NewsCore October 06, 2011 9:09AM

WHEN Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin found two ancient vases during a scuba dive in the Black Sea, Russia's state-controlled media fawned over his latest action man adventure, but his official spokesman revealed today that the treasure hunt was not all it seemed.

Dmitri Peskov admitted that the fragments of two 6th century amphorae had been planted on the seabed for him to "discover" during his visit to an archaeological expedition at the site of the ancient Greek city of Phanagoria.

"Putin did not find amphorae on that day that had lain there for thousands of years, that's obvious. And all perfectly cleaned up. He just didn't find them," Mr Peskov told interviewers on the Dozhd [Rain] internet television channel.

Asked whether the antiquities had been planted, Mr Peskov replied, "Of course, they were found at the time of the expedition a few weeks or days earlier ... They either left them there or put them there. It's absolutely normal. It's absolutely not a reason for gloating and all the rest."

Mr Peskov said that he had been on holiday at the time of the publicity stunt in August and "could not have thought it up." Asked who did, he said, "There were a huge number of archaeologists there, including ones working permanently on this expedition. There were huge numbers of people from the RGO (Russian Geographical Society) who give grants to partially support these expeditions."

He added, "They wanted him to see how it looks in reality. It is a completely normal phenomenon."

Images of Mr Putin clad in his wetsuit with the two broken jugs went around the world in what has become a summer tradition of daredevil activities by the prime minister to bolster his macho image with Russians, even if the waters were only six feet deep on this occasion.

"Treasure!" a smiling Mr Putin told reporters at the site on Russia's Taman Peninsula, before joking that there was no wine left in the containers. Mr Peskov said that the former KGB agent decided for himself whether to stage such photo opportunities and had no need of PR gurus and "image-makers" to advise him.

[james&olya 1,121]

But no aircraft carrier with a mission accomplished banner to pose under wearing a flight suit with stuffing in the crotch?!

[Brusik 11]

hmm I assume Georgia will be excluded lol

[slim 1,530]

hmm I assume Georgia will be excluded lol

Or annexed.