The political demography of the eurasian economic union

Abstract

Currently, in Eurasia a series of integration processes takes place, the most important of which for Russia is the formation of the Eurasian Economic Union. This integration is as an alternative to the European Union in the post-Soviet space. First of all, economic preconditions and purposes of integration within the EAEU are declared. By means of the analysis of the demographic characteristics of the member states of the EAEU the main characteristics of this unification have been identified. It has been established that the EAEU includes two groups of countries with significant differences in demographic terms, which pursues a variety of objects in the domestic and foreign policy. In economic terms, the EAEU is a union of unequal states, where economic core and periphery become discernible. In the world's population structure the share of this union is insignificant, and it, in its present form, is unable to impact on the global trends. The development of the EAEU is possible only at the expense of further expansion, but the prospects of expansion are limited by a number of ideological, geopolitical and foreign policy factors. As a result, at this stage it can only be extensive expansion of the EAEU, through the inclusion of a number of less developed countries of Central Asia, which does not enhance the quality of its performance. It seems that the EAEU rather performs the tasks of the Geopolitics than being an economic integration union. The results of the article can be used to predict the integration processes.