Russia, Belarus, Kazakhstan Get Eurasian Union Rolling

Russia`s President Dmitry Medvedev (C), Belarus` President Alexander Lukashenko (C-R) and Kazakhstan`s President Nursultan Nazarbayev (C-L) attend a meeting of the Supreme Eurasian Economic Council at the Kremlin in Moscow, Russia 19 December 2011. Photo

The state leaders of Russia, Belarus and Kazakhstan have approved the appointment of the "Eurasian Economic Commission", a new supranational body to integrate the three former Soviet republics within a common economic space, the so called Eurasian Union, as of January 1, 2012.

Russian President Dmitry Medvedev, Belarus President Alexander Lukashenko, and Kazakhstan Preisdent Nursultan Nazarbayev approved at their summit on Monday Russian Industry and Trade Minister Viktor Khristenko as head of the Eurasian Economic Commission, RIA Novosti reported.

"I want to congratulate Khristenko as chairman of the Eurasian Economic Commission," Russian President Dmitry Medvedev said at the commission's session. Khristenko will leave his current office after the appointment.

In November, the Russian, Belarusian and Kazakh presidents signed a declaration on Eurasian economic integration, a roadmap of integration processes aimed at creating the Eurasian Economic Union, which will be based on the Customs Union and common economic space among the three countries.

Medvedev and his Belarusian and Kazakh counterparts Alexander Lukashenko and Nursultan Nazarbayev also approved at their summit on Monday decisions on enforcing agreements from next year on the free movement of goods, capital and workforce within the common economic space between the three former Soviet republics and regulating the work of the Eurasian Economic Commission.

Russian President Dmitry Medvedev said that the summit was intended to adopt "a package of important decisions on the launch of a new supranational body, the Eurasian Economic Commission, already this year, and the launch of the Common Economic Space as a whole."

Russia, Belarus and Kazakhstan may introduce a single currency in the future within the Eurasian Economic Union between the three former Soviet republics, Russian Prime Minister and future President Vladimir Putin said last week.

Putin is the architect of the so called Eurasian Union, a new entity supposedly meant to promote cooperation both with Europe and the Asia-Pacific region, as of 2012.

More on Putin's Eurasian Union project READ HERE and HERE

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