Issue Integration dilemmas born of power asymmetry among Russia, China, the EU and smaller Eurasian states

Summary

The report defines the integration dilemma as a situation in which one state sees a neighbour's entry into a military alliance or economic bloc as a threat, or in which members resent an uneven distribution of benefits. The first layer lies between Russia and the other Eurasian states, where large gaps in power within the CIS, the Eurasian Economic Union and the CSTO, and the dominant weight of Russia and China in the SCO and the Belt and Road, leave smaller members in a subordinate role. Inside the Eurasian Economic Union, differing political, economic and informational capacities make it hard to reconcile members' interests, as seen in free trade talks with Korea and efforts to link the union with the Silk Road Economic Belt. The second layer concerns China's deepening ties with post-Soviet states, which pose both an asymmetry problem and a challenge to Russia's traditional influence, while the third pits the EU's pull against the Eurasian Economic Union, most visibly over Ukraine and Georgia and NATO enlargement. Russia itself bears most of the costs of holding the bloc together, and some Russians complain that former Soviet states lean on it too heavily.