Nezavisimaya Gazeta: EU Outbids CIS Countries from Russia
"What needs to be done to destroy the CIS, which is in its last days? Practically the European Commission just the other day answered this question, declaring about granting 12 billion euros in the framework of Neighborhood Policy program for the development of some states," Nezvisimaya Gazeta writes. In the list of kindly treated countries by Brussels also appeared Russia's partners in the CIS - Georgia, Ukraine, Azerbaijan and Moldova combined in regional organization of GUAM, as well as Armenia. Besides money the European Commission promised them wide integration in trade and economy, built on free transportation of products, as well as simplified ways of visa delivery, systematic involvement of those countries in joint programs and closer co-operation in the energy and transport sectors. "This is just the same thing which is being declared in CIS during the past 15 years but is not fulfilled anyway. And the last CIS summit in Minsk showed that the dream of post-soviet nations for free movement and trade in the territory of former Soviet Union will not come true.
But promising projects like EurAsEC (Eurasian Economic Community) and UES (United Economic Space) after close examination remind us of Potyomkin's villages, which generally arises a question: do the presidents of CIS member states, and first of all of Russia, really want to make something concrete from that neighborly relations, the publication reports.
"If we examine our relations with CIS countries during the past 15 years, we will notice that principle of relation building has changed. More than 15 years we held them in our sphere of influence by providing the former sister nations with cheap, sometimes free-of-charge gas. But this year we decided to use the same pipeline factor as a tool in disputable political issues with neighbors declaring that Russia will pass to a new, to European system of price making. For the grater part of CIS countries, which used to pay $80 for 1000 cubic meters the new price of $230 became a tragedy. They began to look for new partners and found them in Europe. Unlike Moscow, which finances conflict zones in post-soviet territories- South Ossetia, Abkhazia and Trandnistria (totally 1 million people), which declared about their wish to join Russia, Brussels staked on juridical centers and as a whole pays for Georgia, Moldavia and now Armenia's reorientation to the West,"Nezavisimaya Gazeta reports.
But promising projects like EurAsEC (Eurasian Economic Community) and UES (United Economic Space) after close examination remind us of Potyomkin's villages, which generally arises a question: do the presidents of CIS member states, and first of all of Russia, really want to make something concrete from that neighborly relations, the publication reports.
"If we examine our relations with CIS countries during the past 15 years, we will notice that principle of relation building has changed. More than 15 years we held them in our sphere of influence by providing the former sister nations with cheap, sometimes free-of-charge gas. But this year we decided to use the same pipeline factor as a tool in disputable political issues with neighbors declaring that Russia will pass to a new, to European system of price making. For the grater part of CIS countries, which used to pay $80 for 1000 cubic meters the new price of $230 became a tragedy. They began to look for new partners and found them in Europe. Unlike Moscow, which finances conflict zones in post-soviet territories- South Ossetia, Abkhazia and Trandnistria (totally 1 million people), which declared about their wish to join Russia, Brussels staked on juridical centers and as a whole pays for Georgia, Moldavia and now Armenia's reorientation to the West,"Nezavisimaya Gazeta reports.
