Belarus and Russia integrate economies

RUSSIA / FSU POLITICS - In Brief 16 Sep 2019 by Alex Teddy
A secret economic integration program was agreed by Belarus and Russia on September 3. The objective is to have a harmonized tax code, civil code and foreign trade regime by January 2021. The two countries will have a common macroeconomic policy, currency control system and payment system. They will share a payment protection system. There will be a common regulator for oil, gas and electricity. The document was leaked but it has since been confirmed as genuine by Dmitry Peskov who is Putin's spokesman. Note that the plan requires the two countries to agree on the details. The details have not been worked out yet. Russia supplies the bulk of Belarus' energy. There have been rows because Russia has been selling energy to Belarus at below market price since 1991 and has not seen a sufficient return in loyalty or integration. At this stage there is no talk of scrapping the Belarussian currency and simply using the RUR in Belarus too. The two countries do not envisage amalgamating the two central banks. The military, judiciary, health system and legislature are to remain separate for each country. Moscow is said to walk Belarus to fully merge back into Russia. This plan only goes half way.Russia outnumbers Belarus 14 to one. The GDP is 29 times larger than that of Belarus.

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