Russia’s prime minister Vladimir Putin published an article in the Russian daily Izvestia, stating that the current Customs Union and Common Economic Space which includes Russia, Belarus and Kazakhstan, and soon Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan as well, will, in the future form the basis for a Eurasian Union.

Given that it’s clear who is to preside over Russia for the next 12 years, it’s obvious that this is a sufficient time interval during which global projects can be implemented. Remember that it was Putin who said that the collapse of the Soviet Union was the greatest calamity of the 20th century; thus this announcement about a Eurasian Union must be viewed in that context.

Russia, like no other empire, has unique historical experience in breaking up and re-making itself again. Kievian Russia fell in the 1200s, was re-constituted, and then fell again in the 1600s. The Romanovs rebuilt the empire and that lasted until 1917. A short time later, it rose again, this time as the Soviet Union, and survived until 1991.

On the other hand, Russia’s empirical tendencies are also conditioned by an ever-growing China, whose interests in economic, military, geopolitical and even outer space matters has transformed it into a second power center. Russia can do nothing except enlarge its own resources, including demographically.

Of course Russia will attempt to include Armenia in its integration processes, especially since it’s already half-way there, given Russia’s deep presence in Armenia militarily and economically. Add to that Armenia’s geopolitical problems – the closed borders, the Karabakh conflict, the threat of war – and these leave a small republic with little opportunity to explore such a possibility in a dignified way, especially considering that there are no common borders.

The danger for Armenia is Kaliningradization. The only way to withstand such a prospect is to deal with internal structural issues. Otherwise it won’t be integration, it will become a takeover.