Yerevan/Mediamax/. Russian political scientist, Editor-in-Chief at "Russia in Global Affairs” Journal Fyodor Lukyanov believes the artificial acceleration of the formation of the Eurasian Economic Union (EEU) "might only harm”.

Fyodor Lukyanov stated it during a lecture delivered within the Media School in Moscow held for the journalists of post-Soviet counties.

“Eurasian integration is at the initial stage of its development. Its formation requires painstaking and long-lasting work. I am flatly against the political dimension of this union. Its formation will be a painful process of coordination of economic issues and one of the most important tasks the union will face will be competition with China’s Silk Road economic project. I hope Eurasian Union will consider the economic peculiarities of all partner-countries. It’s a slow process and its artificial acceleration might only harm”, said the political scientist.

In his speech, Fyodor Lukyanov also touched upon the crisis in Ukraine.

“I am absolutely sure what happened in Ukraine early this year was a huge surprise and shock for the Russian leadership which was forced to act quite impulsively. The annexation of Crimea by Russia was a symbolic gesture implying the following: “we no longer play by the rules of the U.S. and do what we find necessary”. What Russian leadership did was risky but it was also quite mindful. To all appearances, Russia’s this step was stemming from the realization of the fact that the development model Russia employed for the past 25 years did not live up to expectations”, he said.

Speaking about U.S.-Russian ties, Fyodor Lukyanov expressed the opinion that “it is less likely there will be a conversion to a direct confrontation, however, nothing positive should be expected either”.