Russia: Putin Builds New Union on Ashes of former Soviet Empire

Vladimir Putin

It will not exactly mean going back to the U.S.S.R., but Vladimir Putin is laying the foundations of a huge trading bloc which opponents see as an attempt to recreate at least part of the lost Soviet empire.

The Russian president and the leaders of two other former Soviet republics, Belarus and Kazakhstan, will sign a treaty on Thursday that brings to life his dream of uniting like-minded countries in a Eurasian Economic Union.

With a market of more than 170 million people, the customs and trading bloc is intended by Putin to challenge the economic might of the European Union, the U.S. and China.

That looks like a distant dream but, despite the former KGB spy's denials, critics see the signing ceremony in the Kazakh capital of Astana as a part of a much bigger plan.

"Mr. Putin has made no secret, and he said it publicly on more than one occasion over the years, that the demise of the Soviet Union was a terrific mistake," U.S. Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel told U.S. public broadcaster PBS. "Now, I think that is a premise that he truly believes and I think that is where he starts."

Opponents see Russia's reclaiming of Crimea from Ukraine in March — which deepened the worst standoff with the West since the end of the Cold War — as another part of an effort to reassert Russian control of former Soviet territory.

Putin dismisses such talk as a misconception and denies the creation of the Eurasian Economic Union has anything to with reviving the Soviet empire.

"Our ambition is to integrate within the post-Soviet space but not because we want to restore the Soviet Union or an empire, because we would like to use the competitive advantages of these states that are now independent," Putin told journalists in St. Petersburg on Saturday.

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