EurAsian Currency?

From Moscow Times:
"Euro Crisis Gives Impetus to Eurasian Common Currency Discussion"

 

Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev is calling attention to the introduction of a common currency for the Eurasian Union of former Soviet countries as a hedge against growing volatility in global financial markets.Although he noted that creating such a currency is a long-term project — the Eurasian Union is expected to start functioning in 2015 — he said it's time "to think ahead." The idea of the Eurasian Union was first voiced by then-Prime Minister Vladimir Putin in October 2011.

In an article in Izvestia, Putin said the Eurasian Union would further integrate existing customs-union members Russia, Belarus and Kazakhstan. It would be expanded later to include more former Soviet republics, perhaps Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan. Introducing a single currency for the member states of the Eurasian Union would ease trade and financial relations between the countries, reduce currency exchange expenses and simplify individuals' transfer across the borders, but it's a very long-term prospect, said Alexei Portansky, a professor in the global economy and policy department at the Higher School of Economics.

 

^ It seems like Russia is trying to do too much too fast by talking about a common currency for a political organization that doesn't even exist yet. You would think that they would see what is happening with the Eurozone in the EU and want to hold-off. I'm not sure that the EurAsian Union will be any stronger than the Commonwealth of Independent States is (and the CIS isn't very strong at all.) ^

http://www.themoscowtimes.com/business/article/what-euro-crisis-russia-seeks-single-currency/460456.html