Russian President &to=http://english.pravda.ru/main/18/88/350/16631_Putin.html' target=_blank>Vladimir Putin and his Belarusian counterpart, Alexander Lukashenko, on Tuesday discussed ways add substance to the ambitious union agreement between their two former Soviet republics.
The 1996 agreement envisaged close political, economic and military ties, but the two nation's movement toward a declared a goal of creating a single country has been stalled.
Lukashenko has rejected Putin's integration proposal floated in 2002 under which Belarus would essentially be absorbed by Russia. And a plan to introduce the Russian ruble as the two nations' single currency starting in January 2005 has run into problems amid Belarusian officials' concerns that it would give Russia too much leverage over the nation of 10 million.
"Citizens of our nations are expecting a continuous expansion of the Russian-Belarusian integration," Putin said at the start of his talks with &to=http://english.pravda.ru/main/18/88/354/15238_cis.html' target=_blank>Lukashenko in St. Petersburg, according to the ITAR-Tass, Interfax and RIA Novosti news agencies.
Lukashenko, who has become a pariah in the West for his relentless crackdown on the opposition and independent media, hailed unification efforts.
"We have done a lot to make integration processes between our nations irreversible," Lukashenko said Tuesday. "There is no alternative to our unity", reports AP.
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