In this image taken Wednesday, March 5, 2014 Russian President Vladimir Putin gestures speaking at his meeting with Kazakh President Nursultan Nazarbayev and Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko in the Novo-Ogaryovo residence outside Moscow. As a counterweight to the European Union, Russia’s Vladimir Putin is pursuing an ambitious dream rooted in memories of Soviet glory: The Eurasian Union. It’s a strategy to pull former Soviet satellite states back into Moscow’s orbit through a combination of incentives and threats. And embattled Ukraine, a huge country of 46 million people, has lain at the center of the game-plan. (AP Photo/Yuri Kadobnov, Pool)
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