Belarus-Russian talks on reunification falter

RUSSIA / FSU POLITICS - In Brief 02 Oct 2019 by Alex Teddy
On October 1 Belarusian Foreign Minister Makei said that the terms of reunification with Russia are not acceptable. In 1999 the two countries agreed the long term goal of merging into a single sovereign state. However, there has been very little progress. Russia and Belarus already belong to a union state but this seems to be little more than a theory. Moscow is keen to achieve real unity in 2022. The tax code, customs, currency, defense policy and foreign policy and so on are supposed to be made uniform by 2022 or sooner. Russia has 14 times the population of Belarus and 29 times the wealth. This will not really be a merger. It would be Belarus becoming part of Russia. President Lukashenko dominates Belarus more than Putin dominates Russia. Lukashenko is accustomed to getting his own way. He does not want to play second fiddle to Putin. Belarus benefits from Russia selling it energy at well know market price and from soft loans from Russia. Moscow is fed up of being so generous to Belarus and getting very little in return. Belarus has not formally turned against reunification. The position is that the two countries should concentrate on integrating industry and agriculture first.

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