Introduction. The Idea of Greater Eurasia
The macroregion of Greater Eurasia is becoming a new phenomenon in the system of international relations. It is located on the largest continent on Earth and includes both European and Asian cultural traditions. Geographically, Greater Eurasia includes Russia, the countries of East, Southeast and South Asia, Central Asia, and Europe in the event that it demonstrates a readiness to cooperate.
Greater Eurasia, as a region in the process of formation, is open to the creation of new integration associations, which in the long term are capable of setting the trends of world politics in the coming century. According to one of the founders of the concept of Greater Eurasia, S. A. Karaganov, the partnership or community of Greater Eurasia has several definitions, namely:
1. Conceptual framework, setting the vector of interaction between the states of the continent. The goal is “joint economic, political and cultural revival and development of dozens of previously partially backward or suppressed Eurasian countries, turning Eurasia into the center of the world economy and politics.”
2. Geoeconomic community, conditioned by the “Asia for Asia” trend and China's turn towards interaction with the Eurasian states — the “One Belt, One Road” project and its coupling with the Eurasian Economic Union (EAEU), Russia's turn to the East.
3. Space for civilizational cooperation. In this regard, the creation and expansion of various associations, initiatives, platforms and forums are dictated by the desire to establish stable contacts between great civilizations: Chinese, Indian, Persian, Arab, Russian, etc.
4. Movement towards a new geostrategic community — a pan-Eurasian bloc for development, cooperation, peace and security. In this regard, Greater Eurasia appears as a space of mutual balance, agreements and cooperation, which is aimed at preventing conflicts and bringing peace and stability to the continent.
One of the ideological foundations of the Greater Eurasia concept is the Eurasianist movement, the foundation of which was established at the turn of the 19th and 20th centuries by Russian Slavophile thinkers. They proposed moving away from excessive Eurocentrism in Russia’s foreign affairs and advocated for the creation of a distinct center of gravity in Eurasia, based on Russia’s unique geographical position between Europe and Asia.
In response to the 1917 October Revolution, Eurasianist thought developed among Russian émigrés. They included geographer P. N. Savitsky, linguist N. S. Trubetzkoy, historian G. V. Florovsky, and musician P. P. Suvchinsky, who published an anthology in 1921: Exodus to the East. Each of them emphasized Russia’s distinct characteristics from their respective areas of expertise — including the country’s unique topographical and geographical position, its vast cultural and linguistic diversity, and the cultivation of individuals ready for great deeds and heroic sacrifice.
They contrasted Western (Atlantic) civilization — which they saw as maritime and bourgeois — with the Eurasian civilization, which they described as “steppe-based” and passionate. They regarded the early Soviet Union as a nearly ideal example of this value-based opposition to the West. By the late 1920s, however, interest in Eurasianism had waned.
A new impetus to this doctrine — now called “neo-Eurasianism” — was given in the late 1980s by L. N. Gumilev, who referred to himself as “the last Eurasianist.” He introduced the passionate theory of ethnogenesis, in which he defined the concept of a “superethnos” — a group of ethnic groups united by shared living conditions, culture, and historical heritage.
The rise of neo-Eurasianism became especially relevant against the backdrop of the Soviet Union’s collapse and the search for a new unifying idea to replace the lost communist ideology. In this context, one can recall A. N. Sakharov’s 1989 proposal to transform the USSR into the Union of Soviet Republics of Europe and Asia, as well as N. A. Nazarbayev’s speech at Moscow State University on March 29, 1994, in which he proposed transforming the CIS into the Eurasian Union of States (EAS) — a concept that became the ideological foundation for institutions of Eurasian integration. In 1995, the leaders of Russia, Kazakhstan, and Belarus — followed shortly by Kyrgyzstan, Uzbekistan, and Tajikistan — signed the first agreement to create a Customs Union, which later evolved into the Eurasian Economic Community (EAEC).
The EAEU as an expression of Eurasianism
The Eurasian Economic Community (EAEC) was the first integration association focused on bringing Eurasia together. On October 10, 2000, in Astana, the leaders of Russia, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Tajikistan and Kyrgyzstan signed an agreement on the establishment of the EAEC, and on May 30, 2001, it entered into force. The organization was created with the aim of forming a customs union and a single economic space, as well as in order to foster economic and humanitarian integration. Among the institutions created within the EAEC, the Eurasian Development Bank (EDB), which began operating in 2006, should be noted.
In 2007, Russia, Belarus and Kazakhstan signed an Agreement on the Creation of a Single Customs Territory, and on November 18, 2011 - on the creation of a Single Economic Space (SES), which took effect on January 1, 2012. On the same day, the treaties "On the Eurasian Economic Commission" and "On the Regulations of the Eurasian Economic Commission" were signed, establishing a supranational regulatory body - the Eurasian Economic Commission (EEC).
On March 29, 2014, in Astana, the heads of Russia, Belarus and Kazakhstan signed the Treaty on the Eurasian Economic Union, which entered into force on January 1, 2015, establishing the Eurasian Economic Union (EAEU) - an international organization aimed at fostering legally binding regional economic integration. On October 10, 2014, Armenia joined the process of creating the EAEU, and on December 23, 2014, the Republic of Kyrgyzstan followed suit. On April 11, 2017, the Treaty on the Customs Code of the Eurasian Economic Union was signed, which entered into force on January 1, 2018.
Within the framework of the EAEU, the free movement of goods, services, capital and labor is ensured, and a coordinated policy is implemented in certain sectors of the economy. The highest supranational body of the EAEU is the Supreme Eurasian Economic Council, which consists of heads of state. The body coordinating the activities of the governments of the member countries is the Eurasian Intergovernmental Council, which consists of heads of government.
Thus, in 2025, the Eurasian Economic Union includes five states with a total population of 185 million people and a total territory of 20.2 million km2. The aggregate GDP by the end of 2024 totaled $2,591 billion.
The following countries have the status of observer states in the EAEU: Moldova (since May 14, 2018), Uzbekistan (since December 11, 2020), Cuba (since December 11, 2020) and Iran (since December 26, 2024). According to the results of last year, the Eurasian Economic Union showed positive economic dynamics. According to the Ministry of Economic Development of Russia, by the end of 2024, the growth of total GDP in the EAEU was 4.2%, the volume of mutual trade exceeded $90 billion, and industrial production in constant prices had increased by 4.5%. The most growth was recorded in the manufacturing industry (8.2%).
Since the establishment of the EAEU, a number of trade agreements have been concluded, providing the preferential access of partners to each other's markets. In 2015, an agreement was signed with Vietnam (which came into force on October 5, 2016). In 2019, an agreement on the creation of a free trade area (FTA) with Singapore was signed (did not enter into force). In 2021, an FTA agreement with Serbia entered into force. Finally, on May 15, 2025, the full-scale FTA agreement with Iran, signed in 2023, entered into force, which is designed to increase trade turnover between the partners to a record $ 12 billion.
It should be noted that the current non-preferential agreement between the EAEU and China ensures the systematic interaction of the EAEU institutions with the People’s Republic on various trade and economic issues. Trade agreements with Egypt, the UAE, Indonesia, and India are in the process of being developed.
According to Evgeny Vinokurov, Chief Economist of the Eurasian Development Bank, the creation of the Eurasian Economic Union is an example of the practical implementation of the concept of “pragmatic Eurasianism,” aimed at ensuring "integration from below" - through the creation of sustainable economic ties for the free movement of goods, services, labor, and capital. This approach is an example of "open regionalism" that is not self-contained and is aimed at building ties with partners across the continent.
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