Eurasian Union: Overcoming Institutional Vacuum

Abstract

The relations among the states of the Post-Soviet region had characterized predominantly by bilateral regulations rather than multilateralism. Russia appeared to be at the center of relations while the other nations had little economic, political, or military ties with post soviet states. The institutions created in the Post-Soviet space turned fragile from regional integrity, conflict management, and further development. When it came to the institutional preferences of the Post-Soviet countries, they were very diverse, given the willingness of extra-regional organizations such as the EU, NATO, and others to penetrate the region. Thus, the regional states had little to do together, let alone create a high-level regional organization, except for their close ties with Russia. Moreover, in its turn, Russia relied on regulating its relations with regional states on a bilateral basis. Then, the central puzzle is how to explain the emerging multilateralism in the form of the Eurasian Economic Union, considering the bilateralism between the states of the Post-Soviet region? We argue that the Eurasian Union is designed to overcome the institutional vacuum in the Post-Soviet region to reduce the regional countries' institutional manoeuvrability and maintain the region's geopolitical integrity by managing high interdependence between regional states.