Akademik

(EAEC or EurAsEC)

   The Eurasian Economic Community began as a custom union established in 1996 among the Commonwealth of Independent States’ members of Russia, Belarus, and Kazakhstan. The current entity was agreed on 10 October 2000, and added Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan to the group. In 2006, Uzbekistan formally joined the Eurasian Economic Community, thus alleviating the need for a separate Organization of Central Asian Cooperation, which was folded into the EAEC. The members hope to establish a single economic space by 2010; Kazakhstan’s president, Nursultan Nazarbayev, has called for the implementation of a single currency for the group, tentatively titled the yevraz. Freedom of movement has ostensibly been established between the nations, though border controls remain in place in many areas.