The Soviet Union is gradually being rebuilt as Vladimir Putin eyes a return to the Kremlin. The man who declared the collapse of the Communist state to be the “greatest geopolitical catastrophe of the century” appears determined to forge a new empire.

The latest evidence emerged in a suggestion by Igor Shuvalov, First Deputy Prime Minister in Mr Putin’s Government, that Russia may abolish the rouble and create a common currency with Kazakhstan and Belarus.

A common currency (modelled on the euro) would give Putin an economic lever to challenge the US dollar and the euro by creating a regional reserve currency.

Other ex-Soviet republics would find it hard to resist the gravitational pull of a single currency and economic space.

According to the Times Online, Armenia’s economy is almost completely owned by Russian companies already, and neighbouring Azerbaijan would risk Russian meddling in the frozen conflict over the Armenian enclave of Nagorno-Karabakh.

Struggling Kyrgyzstan has already accepted a $2.15 billion USD bailout from Moscow, and Putin was quick to extend an invitation to join the customs union to Viktor Yanukovych, Ukraine’s new pro-Russian President, when they met in Moscow on Friday.

Further, Aleksandr Lukashenko’s third term as President of Belarus ends next year and he will have to show utter loyalty if Putin is to be the only major international leader to endorse a fourth term.

A willingness to defer to Russia as members of a new Eurasian Union, with its own currency controlled from Moscow, may be the price some of these countries will have to pay for nominal independence.