beyondukraine.euandrussiainsearchofanewrelation

5. Seen from Moscow:
Greater Europe at Risk
Ivan Timofeev
As already mentioned in the previous chapter, the idea of a
Greater Europe is not recent. Already in the 1980s, Mikhail
Gorbachev introduced this concept referring to the existence of a
“Common European Home”. Later on, Boris Yeltsin further
developed it and since 2001 Vladimir Putin has again championed
this project, stressing the need and the importance to create an
integrated common space from Lisbon to Vladivostok. To this
aim, Russia’s Eurasian vocation as a bridge between Europe and
Asia has played a crucial role. Recently, it partially came true with
the launch of the Eurasian Economic Union on 1 st January 2015.
Indeed, the Eurasian Union is supposed to become an integral part
of the projected Common European space. This would finally
realize Russia’s Eurasian goal as Putin stated it in Izvestiya in
2011:
Russia and the EU agreed to form a common economic space
and coordinate economic regulations without the establishment
of supranational structures back in 2003. In line with this idea,
we proposed setting up a harmonized community of economies
stretching from Lisbon to Vladivostok, a free trade zone and
even employing more sophisticated integration patterns. We also
proposed pursuing coordinated policies in industry, technology,
the energy sector, education, science, and also to eventually
scrap visas. These proposals have not been left hanging in
midair; our European colleagues are discussing them in detail.
Soon the Customs Union, and later the Eurasian Union, will join
the dialogue with the EU. As a result, apart from bringing direct