It won't exactly mean going back to the USSR, but Vladimir Putin is laying the foundations of a huge trading bloc which opponents see as an attempt to re-create at least part of the lost Soviet empire.
The Russian president and the leaders of two other ex-Soviet states, Belarus and Kazakhstan, will sign a treaty on Thursday that brings to life his dream of uniting like-minded countries in a Eurasian Economic Union.
With a market of more than 170 million people, the customs and trading bloc is intended by Putin to challenge the economic might of the European Union, the United States and China.