EAU: One of the Putin administration’s most successful projects has been the formation of the Eurasian Economic Union, which Putin aims to expand into a competitor to the European Union, with a similar structure. In June of 2016 during a visit to China, he suggested that the Union could eventually encompass all of the post-Soviet states plus Iran, Afghanistan, Pakistan, China and Mongolia. By April of 2018 he had also sent invitations to Turkey and Syria. It appears that Putin’s goal here is to consolidate Russia’s allies in Eurasia under a single organisation in order the strengthen ties between them. It should be noted that for this to work, several nations would have to be pulled out of the Western Bloc.
Looks like this should be updated to include Albania and North Macedonia too.
https://www.silkroadbriefing.com/ne...north-macedonia-join-eurasian-economic-union/