PROSPECTIVE AREAS INTEGRATION COOPERATION OF CIS COUNTRIES

The Eurasian Economic Union (EEU), created in 2015 by Russia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyz­stan, Belarus and Armenia, claims to be the first successful post-Soviet initiative to overcome trade barriers and promote integration in a fragmented, under-developed region. Supporters argue that it could be a mechanism for dialogue with the European Union (EU) and other international partners. Critics portray a destabilizing project that increases Russia's domination of the region and limits its other members' relations with the West. On paper, the EEU is an economic, technocratic project that offers some benefits to members, particularly in easing cross-border trade and facilitating labour migration, but also poses economic risks by raising external tariffs and potentially orienting economies away from global markets. So far it has had little economic success, though access to Russia's labour market has been an important motivator and, on balance, a positive outcome for struggling post-Soviet economies. The article analyzes the processes taking place within the framework of EEU and in its conclusions suggests that regardless of any difficulties of an economic or political nature, which stand in the way of applicant countries joining the customs union and/or the EEU, or which hinder negotiations about agreeing a common free trade area, the increase in Eurasian integration has more positive than negative results for the parties involved. The positive effects of expansion, which occur automatically for members of the EEU and/or customs union, are plain to see. These positive effects of expansion include primarily the consolidation of reciprocal trade relationships; the expansion of sales markets; the regulation of questions of transport and commerce stability; the legalization of a significant amount of work force migration, which previously lay in a grey area. The issue of a potential equalization across the entire region of Eurasia with the Chinese economic expansion could also be an important consequence of the Eurasian integration process.