Упрощенная HTML-версия
First of all, I would like to say a few words about our representative office that has been
organized on the basis of the General Consulate of the Russian Federation in Simferopol.
We have been working in the new capacity for just a few months and are currently analyzing
the events that have taken place recently.
The Foreign Ministry addresses real-life problems. On the foreign policy level, we seek to
minimize the consequences of the information and political blockade of Crimea. On the
internal political level, we are doing all we can to ensure that not a single resident of Crimea
regrets the events that have taken place and that nothing in his or her life changes for the
worse.
We hope that during this conference, through joint efforts we will work out recommenda-
tions that will, without a doubt, facilitate our daily work on the practical level. Thank you.
Dmitry Polyansky
, Deputy Director, First Depart-
ment of CIS Countries, Ministry of Foreign Affairs
of the Russian Federation
I BELIEVE that in addressing such a respectable
and highly professional audience, there is no need
to once again describe some fundamental aspects
of Eurasian integration. Nevertheless, I would like
to look at the most important special aspects and
elements of Eurasian integration today. Probably everyone remembers the Eurasian Eco-
nomic Union Treaty that our leaders signed in Astana on May 29. A recent session of the
Supreme Eurasian Economic Council in Minsk noted that the states have completed the
treaty ratification process and that it will come into effect on January 1, 2015. Here are
two key reference points of 2014 that, without a doubt, will be ones for the textbooks.
Over the past 20 years, perhaps we have not had much to be proud of with respect to
Eurasian integration, but it is important that since the catastrophic breakup of the Soviet
Union, when everything was done without any regard for human norms and even common
sense, we have preserved a format for cooperation between our nations, for dialogue,
which enables us to judge how well prepared we are to move further, and on what basis.
Pursuing the course of integration, Russia, Belarus and Kazakhstan started energetically
acting on the idea put forward by Nursultan Abishevich Nazarbayev 20 years ago - i.e.
building the Eurasian Economic Union. It was a rocky path.
The commission board makes some decisions by a specific majority. However, if a partic-
ular decision does not respond to the interests of a particular state it can be reviewed or
discussed again on a new basis. This is also a fundamental point. Neither Belarus, nor
Kazakhstan nor Russia can promote a decision on its own. Neither the role nor the weight
of a state plays much of a role here.
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