International

Russia-Belarus union suffers setback

By Vladimir Radyuhin

MOSCOW JUNE 19. Prospects for a unified state of Russia and Belarus vanished into thin air this week as the simmering dispute between the two former Soviet republics over re-unification plans broke into a public row between their leaders. The authoritarian Belarus leader, Alexander Lukashenko, described as an "insult to the Belarusian people'' the Russian President, Vladimir Putin's stinging criticism of his proposal for creating a federation with Russia in which Belarus would be an equal partner.

Mr. Putin dismissed the proposal as an attempt to recreate a semblance of the erstwhile Soviet Union "at any cost, including at the expense of Russia's economic interests.'' He made it clear the unification with Belarus could be only on the basis of their relative economic weight.

``Let's not forget that Belarus' economy equals 3 percent of Russia's,'' the Russian President said. The Belarus leader angrily rejected the idea of become Russia's 90th province.

``We're not going to be any north-western or north-eastern edge of any country,'' Mr. Lukashenko said on Tuesday. "Belarus is an independent state with all the attributes of sovereignty.'' The row broke out after a meeting between the leaders of Russia and Belarus in St. Petersburg last week, where Mr. Lukashenko presented his plan for Russia-Belarus unification.

He proposed that the new state be ruled by a supra-national body which would take decisions by consensus. Mr. Putin said the proposal was unacceptable.

``In no way should we allow a supra-constitutional body to appear with unclear functions,'' he said.

Mr. Putin gave priority to economic integration over political integration, saying that economic aspects of unification were "progressing positively.'' Mr. Putin's criticism of the Belarussian plan has effectively destroyed the sand castle of an early political union between Russia and Belarus built by the former Russian President, Boris Yeltsin, as a populist ploy to boost his fading popularity by exploiting the widespread nostalgia for the former Soviet Union.

However, officials said economic integration of Russia and Belarus will continue.

``Integration level in the energy sectors of the two countries constitutes 90 per cent and in machine building industry 85 per cent,'' said Mr. Pavel Borodin, state secretary of the Russia-Belarus union.

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