A commemorative coin from the series "The Gatherer of Russian Lands," which was minted to mark Crimea's annexation last year into the Russian Federation. REUTERS/Andrei Romanov After his mysterious recent absence from public view, Russian President Vladimir Putin was in Astana, Kazakhstan, on Friday for a meeting of the Eurasian Economic Union.

The organisation is a new economic bloc consisting of Russia, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, and Armenia (Ukraine unsurprisingly opted not to join), and it's part of Russia's strategy to embrace its "near abroad."

The union is still in its early days, having formally begun only in January, but the bloc has tentatively agreed to bring in a single currency and a Eurasian Central Bank by 2025.

Belarus' Mikhail Myasnikovich, who was prime minister until 2014, is calling for the process to be fast-tracked so the currency is ready in the next four years, according to Belarusian state news.

And Putin instructed Russia's central bank earlier this month to work with both the government and other central banks "to determine the future direction of integration in the monetary and financial sectors in the framework of the Eurasian Economic Union with the study of the feasibility of establishing in the future monetary union."

The deadline on the Kremlin instruction is September 1, so there should be more news on the monetary union's progress by then.

It looks as if the Eurasian Union is trying to go for an accelerated version of the process the European Union went through in the second half of the 20th century. The Eurasian Union has already spent years trying to create a single market among the countries involved, without trade tariffs, and it is now looking toward further integration.

What would a Eurasian currency look like? Well, probably not too much different from the ruble — Russia's economy is far and away the largest in the union, and any currency would respond mostly to weakness or strength in Russia.

While introducing a project that combines the oil-driven volatility of the ruble with the vicious diplomatic bickering of the euro would not be without risk, the EEU seems as if it has made up its mind — at least for now. According to the Moscow Times, Kazakhstan's view of the union is getting a little less rosy, which could kill off plans for further political integration.