5. (Mis)interpreting the Eurasian Economic Union? Images of the EAEU in Russia and the West

Over the past few years, the Eurasian Economic Union (EAEU) has become a major topic for discussions about Russia’s attempts to resurge as a regional—and even a global—power. However, in the political and scholarly discourse about the EAEU, there exist multiple images of this organization. The goal of this chapter is to review the perceptions of the EAEU in Eurasia and beyond. It argues that both the Russian and international observers share an important common feature in their view of the EAEU: the focus on the geopolitical role of the organization and in particular its alleged ability to enhance Russia’s influence in the global arena. From this point of view, however, the research on the EAEU faces an important problem: the institutional design of this regional organization does not seem to be particularly suitable to promote the Russian hegemony as the subsequent discussion of this chapter will show.