Vanderbilt Political Review Winter 2015 | Seite 23

WINTER 2015

for the other member states, Russia was
too busy pursuing weak counter-policies
to notice the damage they were doing.
Kazakhstan and Belarus, already not benefiting from the customs union, were losing out on major business as a result of
Russian policies eliminating their competition. Russia’s rather ill-conceived
counter-sanctions on Western imports
also put a damper on member state business, several of which are heavily reliant on European imports in particular.
Comically, the union’s growth was
contributing to its demise, most notably
because of Kyrgyzstan’s addition late in
the year. Kyrgyzstan is notable for having one of the most feeble economies in
the world. With roughly 30% of their GDP
coming from the re-export of cheap Chinese goods into Russia, Kyrgyzstan relies on its WTO membership and a strong
relationship with Russia to stay alive. In
a way, Kyrgyzstan was forced into the
EEU by matter of circumstance. Despite
their obviously flailing economy, they
couldn’t afford to lose out on any trade
negotiations that could be put in jeop-

INTERNATIONAL

ardy by keeping out of the union. Kyrgyz
president Almazbek Atambayev publicly
described it as “the lesser of two evils.”
Now, with Russia’s failings and a
tangle of now-barren negotiations, the
signing countries, locked in and looking
to start a fight, have begun devoting their
effort to rendering the EEU inoperable
rather than to finding the solutions to their
crises. Belarus and Kazakhstan have reopened customs checkpoints that have sat
unused for years because of the customs
union. Any mention of a common currency has been met with furious backlash
from neighbor states. Nationalistic fury
in Kazakhstan and Belarus has driven
interstate relations almost to the point of
nonexistence. As a result, virtually all of
Putin’s plans for a host of shared Eurasian
entities have disintegrated before his eyes.
Today, as the EEU slowly crumbles
beneath its o ݸ