A Eurasian or a European Future for Post-Soviet Georgia’s Economic Development: Which is Better?

Vladimer Papava

doi:10.14738/abr.51.2651

Abstract

The paper analyze the economic models of the well-known Eurasianist doctrine of Russian imperial thinking and the Eurasian Economic Union (EAEU). In the modern era of globalization, an alliance of countries on the basis of the Eurasianist economic model is impossible to establish. The newly established EAEU rests on a redistribution mechanism for oil and gas revenues, whereby Russia deliberately relinquishes a part of its due gains in favor of other member-states in order to not only induce economic interest to remain within the Union, but also to maintain and enhance its political influence via this economic output. Western economic sanctions imposed against Russia as a countermeasure to the invasion and annexation of Crimea and the military and political support provided to the breakaway regions of Eastern Ukraine, as well as the retaliatory anti-sanctions levied by Russia against the West, have demonstrated the fragility and instability of the EAEU. A comparison of the EU with the EAEU does not favor the later. Although attaining membership of the EAEU is much easier than that of the EU, the negative aspects described above ensure that this option holds no appeal for post-Soviet Georgia. Keywords: Eurasian Economic Union, EU, Eurasianism, economic sanctions, post-Soviet Georgia

Highlights

A new Russian-Kazakh regional project, known as the Eurasian Economic Union (EAEU), commenced operation in 2015
For the Eurasianists, the economy should be subordinated to the idea of the Eurasian State, Eurasian civilization, and Eurasian culture
The multi-vector nature of Eurasianism should be formed on the basis of government control in strategic areas, a free market in small and medium production, trade, and the service sphere, as well as diverse forms of collective management

Summary

Introduction

A new Russian-Kazakh regional project (for example, Nurgaliyeva, 2016), known as the Eurasian Economic Union (EAEU), commenced operation in 2015. Given the governance regime of Belarus, the country’s economy comes closest to exhibiting the features of the economic model of Eurasianism (such as “society with a market” and state ownership as a guarantor of achieving social welfare), while more or less successful market reforms have already been carried out in Armenia and Kazakhstan in particular, and at the initial stage of the post-Soviet era in Kyrgyzstan and Russia.

Results

Conclusion