by Björn Schöpe
May 29, 2014 – In 2000 Russia and other former states of the USSR formed the Eurasian Economic Community. At first this was a customs union open to other states as well and destined to go well past pure economic cooperation. The declared model of this community is indeed the European Union.
In 2011 the members of the Eurasian Economic Community and other Eurasian states signed an agreement constituting a free trade zone. In May 2014, according to media reports, a treaty between the presidents of Russia, Kazakhstan and Belarus will establish the Eurasian Economic Union.
This follow-on project of the Eurasian Economic Community will work towards a monetary union of all member states. Especially Nursultan Nazarbayev, the president of Kazakhstan, is said to have appealed to Vladimir Putin since the 1990s to override the US dollar’s supremacy by creating a joint currency of a strong economic zone.
There is only little information available until now but the new currency is supposedly to receive the name of altyn which was the former 3 kopek piece called that circulated in Russia until 1991. The heads of central banks of all member states are said to coordinate the introduction of the new currency and rates of the national currencies. Altyn is expected to be introduced in 2025 or later, however, international economic sanctions against Russia may lead to an anticipation of three to five years.
In a later phase a Eurasian Central Bank will be subordinated to a council of presidents and prime ministers of the member states of the Eurasian Economic Union and will coordinate the financial policy.
So far there have been quite few media reports on this development. One article appeared in the English Pravda.
A collection of different reports gathered the website Silver Doctors.
In Wikipedia you can learn more about the Eurasian Economic Community …
… and the Eurasian Economic Union.