Translated material
Lukashenko's plan
Minsk creates a party of power and discusses an alliance with Moscow
Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko yesterday congratulated his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin on the victory of the United Russia party in the parliamentary elections . This gesture on the part of the ally seemed especially friendly against the backdrop of numerous criticisms of the Russian elections from Western leaders.It is noteworthy that yesterday documents were submitted to the Belarusian Ministry of Justice for registration of the republican public association “Belaya Rus” , which calls its main task to support the policies of President Lukashenko. Politicians and public representatives in Belarus announced their intention to organize “Belaya Rus” about six months ago. The founding congress of the association took place on November 17 in Minsk. The chairman of the republican council of the organization was the Minister of Education Alexander Radkov. Belarusian independent experts are arguing about whether Belaya Rus will become an analogue of the Russian party in power.
The two presidents will be able to exchange experience in party building and electoral victories during Vladimir Putin’s official visit to Minsk, scheduled for December 13-14. Although the main topic will be economic cooperation, the greatest interest is the attempt to return to the discussion of the draft constitutional act of the union state. This document, which regulates the processes of deepening integration of the two countries, has been developed for several years. It caused a lot of controversy, since Minsk refused to give up its sovereignty for the sake of unification with Moscow.
The Belarusian official news agency BELTA reported, citing the Union State Secretary of State Pavel Borodin, that five versions of the draft constitutional act had been prepared. “The project reflects the confederal model of the structure of a union state. The coats of arms and anthems of the countries will remain,” Mr. Borodin said, noting that “we are not talking about introducing the post of Union President and Union ministries.” At the same time, it is planned to create a union parliament. It is also necessary to delegate to the union level some of the powers of states in the military, border, customs spheres, as well as in the field of financial, credit and price policy.
It can be assumed that the mention of the redistribution of powers in the financial sector indicates a revival of the idea of a monetary union. Minsk declares its readiness to take this step if enterprises of the two countries are placed on equal terms - according to the Belarusian side, this implies equal prices for energy resources. Belarus wants to retain the right to independently issue money, while Russia calls for the creation of a single emission center.
The introduction of the Russian ruble as a single means of payment in Belarus was scheduled for January 1, 2005, but in 2004 the process of convergence of financial systems clearly slowed down, and the schedule was disrupted. Then Putin and Lukashenko agreed that they would strive to create a monetary union from the beginning of 2006, but this plan did not become a reality either.
There are concerns on Belarusian opposition websites that Minsk may sacrifice sovereignty for the sake of being able to buy oil and gas at domestic Russian prices. However, independent political scientist Alexander Klaskovsky, in an interview with Vremya Novostey, said that returning to negotiations on a draft constitutional act is nothing more than a tactical move: “The presence of five draft documents means that in fact there is none.” According to the expert, Minsk is not going to share sovereignty, “but they can demonstrate their readiness to deepen integration in order to play along with the Russian leadership on the eve of the presidential elections and get certain benefits for this in gas negotiations.”
The fact that Belarus will not rush to close unification with Russia is also evidenced by the continued diversification of Minsk’s foreign policy and economic contacts. According to Vremya Novostey, just one of these days there may be a visit of Alexander Lukashenko to Venezuela, where Belarusians are looking at energy resources.