Union Disbanded

Alexander Lukashenko’s last letter to his Russian colleague, as well as “Gasprom’s” categorical refusal to sell gas to the neighboring state at Russia’s internal prices, can signify only one thing: the union state of Belarus and Russia died unborn. Last Tuesday Alexander Lukashenko told Vladimir Putin that on January 1, 2005 the Russian ruble can’t be launched into circulation on the territory of the two states. Both sides rest assured that the disagreement between them can’t be resolved. Eight years of the union state’s construction are enough to summarize certain intermediate results, which seem pretty unfortunate. The European countries needed less time to form their union. For the matters of comparison, Belgium, France, Germany, Luxemburg, Italy and the Netherlands signed an agreement on the formation of the European economic community in 1957. And they needed only ten years to found the union bodies of power, such as the European Commission, Parliament and even Court. Russia and Belarus over approximately the same period of time failed to form the effective parliament and reach consensus concerning the principles of the common customs space and joint protection of their common interests at the exterior markets. Moreover, none of the agreements, signed over the past eight years, had been fulfilled.