The question remains whether divergent visions for economic cooperation in Central Asia allow for a long-term symbiosis between the Kremlin-sponsored EEU and China’s Silk Road Economic Belt strategy, which would expand trade and investment into Russia’s “near abroad.” With China’s growing influence in the post-Soviet space enabling the Central Asian republics to embrace a so-called “multi-vector” foreign policy, a shift in the balance of power will benefit Russia’s former client-states by increasing their leverage for negotiation within the newly established entity.