Belarus, Russia and Kazakhstan create the Eurasian Economic Union

The president of Russia, Kazakhstan and Belarus after sealing the free trade agreement. Photo: AP

Belarus, Russia and Kazakhstan signed the corresponding agreement yesterday to create the Eurasian Economic Union in Astana, the capital of the latter country, whose president, Nursultan Nazarbayev, had introduced the idea of ​​its creation 20 years ago.

The signature of the treaty occurs on a Moscow clear effort to consolidate its projection in Asia and reduce the potential impact of eventual Western sanctions related to the crisis in Ukraine.

Ukraine is not part of the alliance and this will be exclusively economic.

The new common market will become operational on January 2015 in the territory of allied countries where there will be “free movement of capital, goods, services and labor,” stressed Vladimir Putin, President of Russia, where, in addition it is concentrated a 20% of world gas reserves and almost 15% of the oil.