(Tasnim News Agency) In an interview with Tasnim, Caress Schenk, assistant professor of political science at Kazakhstan’s Nazarbayev University, commented on the influence of the Eurasian Economic Union’s regulations on the workers from Central Asian countries who leave for Russia to find jobs.
Tasnim: How do you think has the Eurasian Economic Union (EEU) influenced the economies of its member states? In your evaluation, has the Union achieved its goals or has it been just working as a political-economic leverage for Russia?
Schenk: Certainly the EEU creates some leverage for Russia, but it shouldn’t be seen as leverage only in one direction for Russia against the other countries in the union. Each country has their own interests in being involved and membership provides some leverage against Russia for each as well. One example from the migration sphere is that when Kyrgyzstan was negotiating to join the union, it successfully lobbied to have a number of its citizens taken of the blacklist or entry ban list, which kept them from entering Russia (i.e. going to work in Russia). Also, there are complex relationships between each of the member countries. For example, Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan last year had a diplomatic scuffle that made border crossings and trade complicated despite the EEU agreements having been in effect for several years. […]
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