"I think some kind of a step backwards was made, since initially it was the Eurasian Union. Looks like someone was afraid to declare this goal. The Eurasian Economic Union - it is a repeat of the Customs Union", head of the analytical center "Strategy" Leonid Zaika expressed this opinion to UDF.BY on signed agreements by Medvedev, Lukashenko and Nazarbaev on November 18.
According to the expert "it's just new words, new terms, new glasses of champagne in honor of the unity that has already happened".
"In fact such an integration is quite problematic: the country which is leading, exceeds the Belarusian economy in 400 times. Imagine a marriage where a bride is many times higher than a groom. It's a game. The big game of the Kremlin. The game is unsuccessful, because Yeltsin, and Putin, and Medvedev did not succeed with the integration. Now they are also trying to do something. "Something to do" is to drive Belarus into a corner", Leonid Zaika said.
According to the head of "Strategy", Belarus will get from Eurasian Union "just a rigid orientation to the East and nothing more".
"It is safe to say, the road to the West is closed for Belarus today. For the official Minsk the road to Europe is closed, so everything fell into place", the expert concluded.
As UDF.BY reported earlier, the heads of Russia, Belarus and Kazakhstan on Friday in the Kremlin signed the Declaration on the Eurasian Economic Integration and the Treaty on the Eurasian Economic Commission.
The Declaration states a transition to the next stage of the integrative construction - the Common Economic Space (CES), based on norms and principles of the WTO and opened for accession by other states at any stage of its formation.
The document also identifies further ways of the integrative cooperation in the format of "a triplet". The ultimate goal is the establishment of the Eurasian Economic Union.
In accordance with the signed contract on the Eurasian Economic Commission, it is endowed with functions to manage processes of integration in the format of the CU and the CES, and should start its work on 1 January 2012.
