Integration Club generates ideas

In early February, against the the background of protests Ukraine, VTsIOM polled Russians' opinions by asking respondents about the political future of Ukraine. It turned out that Russians' assessment of the future direction of the foreign policy of Ukraine is ambiguous. Thus, 36% of respondents believe that Ukraine will get closer to Russia and join the Eurasian Union, while 32% of respondents, by contrast, tend to believe that the Ukrainian authorities will continue towards European integration. Another third of the respondents (32%) have not yet decided their opinions on the matter.  

 

Meanwhile the Eurasian integration project has some difficulties in its progress. The Integration Club has been running in the Federation Council for two years. Its mission is to generate new ideas and suggestions for improving the legal framework of the future Eurasian Union, as well as to promote direct cooperation with the CIS countries.  As stated by the head of the Federation Council's Deputy Chairman Ilyas Umahanov, "being an informal site, which has no fixed membership, with the open nature of the work, we can accumulate significant scientific, economic, social and political potential. Unlike other institutions that operate under the Federation Council, we moved away from traditional forms of preparing recommendations, which specialized committees, the afore-mentioned structures and the Advisory Council send to the relevant ministries and agencies. We have come to understand that the best form will be for the preparation of the annual report of the Integration Club, which will accumulate all the ideas and suggestions expressed by members of government, experts and participants of various discussions during the past year."    

 

The first report, according to the deputy chairman of the Russian Commission for UNESCO, the former president of North Ossetia Alexander Dzasokhov, is prepared on a good professional level: "The report maintained an accurate reflection of the variety of opinions about the Eurasian project. But this variety fits into one strategic line. Just a year ago, at our acute and long discussions, we could meet mutually exclusive points of view. The question was whether it is real or not to implement this important Eurasian project. Now we have reached a consensus that the Eurasian project is one of the most important areas of our foreign policy."    

 

According to Mr Dzasokhov, particular attention should be paid to the Greater Caucasus: "Preserving the negative legacy and the political conflicts blocks the integration processes there. Given the special geopolitical importance of the Greater Caucasus, we could work in this direction within our strategy. Russia is the largest Caucasus state. Brainstorming on topical issues of conflict resolution could also be encouraged, because all processes take place on a bilateral basis. The format of multilateral negotiations was lost in 2004 in connection with the position of the Saakashvili regime, who has now left the political arena. Now there are opportunities, and it is necessary to use them. We should bear in mind that it is the Caucasian states themselves who have to develop the necessary measures with regard to the integration processes that are uncontested. Later, influential states adjacent to the Greater Caucasus can join as well."    

 

Commenting on the problems of the integration of the Greater Caucasus in an interview with Vestnik Kavkaza, Ilyas Umahanov remarked that "this requires a lot of thinking in the framework of the integration team. We will soon expand not only the geography of events, but also the geography of problems that fit into the agenda of integration processes development. Still, stability and security in the Greater Caucasus is a contributing factor to the integration process, and held both within the three already united countries - Kazakhstan, Belarus and Russia - and in the wider format of integration associations. It seems to me that the topic offered for the first meeting of the Integration Club - integration at the level of the regions of the Russian Federation - enables a more substantive discussion of this topic. To some extent, this will be the subject of consideration by the Heads of State and Governments, as the Russian Federation now presides over the Association of Caspian States, and the next forum is due to be held in Astrakhan. Astrakhan, Kalmykia, Dagestan and other regions - these are the subjects that are directly adjacent to the Caspian region. It is important for everyone, including for Azerbaijan."