Kazakhstan and Belarus take first steps towards Eurasian economic union

Three ex-Soviet states were Friday to agree the first steps towards creating a Eurasian economic union, a project backed by Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin to bind closer the former USSR.

Russian President Dmitry Medvedev and his Kazakhstan and Belarus counterparts Nursultan Nazarbayev and Alexander Lukashenko were to sign a declaration on further economic integration at a summit in Moscow, the Kremlin said in a statement.

“The declaration will set out the ultimate aim (of economic integration) as the creation of a Eurasian economic union,” it said.