Union State

• 1. Introduction

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  On the 8th of December 1999, Belarus and Russia signed the Treaty on the Creation of a Union State. The document sketched a single country with a common head of state, legislature, flag, coat of arms, anthem, constitution, army, citizenship and currency. That country does not exist. Belarus and Russia remain independent, and the Union State they built resembles a confederation more than the federation the treaty imagined. It is a supranational union of only two members, with the stated purpose of drawing them together on economic and defence policy. As of 2025, Alexander Lukashenko of Belarus holds the presidency of its Supreme State Council, a position he has held since 2000. Why did two governments with such different economies sign up for it? Which promises were kept, and which were pushed back year after year? And why do politicians in other countries keep raising the idea of joining, while none has ever joined?

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• 2. Roots of the Union

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  Within about two years, Belarus and Russia signed a string of agreements that edged them toward each other. On the 6th of January 1995, the two governments signed an Agreement on a Customs Union. On the 21st of February, they added an Agreement on Friendship, Good Neighborly Relations and Cooperation. On the 2nd of April 1996, their presidents concluded a treaty founding the Community of Belarus and Russia, citing "the historically established commonality of fates of their peoples." A year later, on the 2nd of April 1997, a further treaty strengthened the arrangement and renamed it the Union of Belarus and Russia. More agreements followed on the 25th of December 1998, aimed at deeper political, economic and social integration.

  In 1994, Belarus suspended its reforms toward a market economy, hoping to preserve Soviet-style centralization, while Russia pressed ahead with sweeping changes. The two countries also differed greatly in population and territory. Even so, each saw a prize. Integration promised Belarus much cheaper Russian oil and gas, and access to far larger markets for its goods. For Russia, the analyst Dmitri Trenin argued that "Belarus' geography alone makes it supremely important to any Russian leadership... as a principal defensive bulwark and a forward base for power projection."

  Boris Yeltsin, then president of Russia, launched the project under pressure from two directions. His political opponents wanted the two states reunited. Lukashenko, meanwhile, hoped to tie his struggling economy to Russia's stronger one. Some observers believe he also wanted to become president of a future federation. Yeltsin's popularity had sunk to an all-time low, and Vladimir Putin succeeded him as president in 2000. A 1999 protest in Minsk, known as the Freedom March, opposed unification. Together with Putin's election, it forced Lukashenko to drop those ambitions. He settled into balancing Belarusian independence against Putin's growing pressure for deeper integration.

  The Russian State Duma ratified the treaty on the 22nd of December 1999, and the National Assembly of Belarus followed on the 26th of January 2000. The Union came into effect on that second date. The treaty described it as "a secular, democratic, social State ruled by law in which political and ideological diversity are recognized." Kazakh president Nursultan Nazarbayev had floated a comparable Eurasian union as early as 1994. Nothing came of it until the 29th of May 2014, when the Eurasian Economic Union was formed.

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• 3. Institutions on Paper

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  Five bodies form the skeleton of the Union State: the Supreme State Council, the Council of Ministers, the Union Parliament, the Court of the Union and the Accounting Chamber. The Supreme State Council sits on top. It brings together the heads of state, their governments and both chambers of each parliament. Each country gets one vote, and the presidents cast it. The chairman of the Executive Committee attends with an advisory vote only. Unless the states agree otherwise, the presidency of the Council passes between their heads of state in rotation. Its remit covers security, including protection from outside threats, border protection and military development.

  Mikhail Mishustin is the current president of the Council of Ministers. That body is made up of the prime ministers, the foreign, economy and finance ministers of both states, and the State Secretary of the Union. A Permanent Committee serves as its working arm.

  The treaty envisions a Parliamentary Assembly with two chambers, the House of the Union and the House of Representatives. The House of Representatives would hold 75 deputies from Russia and 28 from Belarus, elected by voters in each country. Only the House of the Union has been formed so far. It has 72 deputies, 36 from each country. It meets in regular sessions twice a year, and two thirds of members must be present for a quorum. It has one president, four vice presidents and eight permanent committees. Vyacheslav Volodin is the current president of the Parliamentary Assembly. On the 12th of December 2020, the 59th joint session of the House of the Union considered the Union State budget for 2021. The figure was about 4.7 billion roubles, or roughly 61.6 million US dollars.

  Nine judges serving six-year terms is the plan for the Court of the Union. The treaty provides for the court, but it was never formed. The Accounting Chamber, by contrast, has a clear job. It controls how the Union State budget is carried out. Its 11 members serve six-year terms and must have experience in control and audit. The Parliament of the Union State appoints them on the proposal of the Council of Ministers.

  Pavel Borodin became the first State Secretary of the Union when the Supreme State Council appointed him on the 26th of January 2000 for a four-year term. His term was renewed in 2004 and again in 2008, and he left office in 2011. Since then, the post has been held by Grigory Rapota, Dmitry Mezentsev and Sergey Glazyev.

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• 4. Powers and Citizens

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  A long list of subjects falls under the exclusive jurisdiction of the Union State. The founding treaties give it authority over a single economic space and the legal foundations of a common market. They also cover a monetary union and a single tax and pricing policy. Unified development and procurement of defence equipment, and a unified system of technical support for the armed forces, belong on the same list. Common command of regional military forces and a shared border policy are carried out through further documents built on this jurisdiction.

  Joint jurisdiction, shared between the Union State and its two members, includes defence policy, harmonizing legislation, science, education and culture. It reaches to migration, working conditions, social security, and the fight against terrorism and corruption. Everything outside both categories stays under the full authority of the member states.

  Every citizen of Russia and of Belarus is also a citizen of the Union State. That status guarantees the right to move and live freely in the other country. A Belarusian can settle in Russia to work or study, and a Russian can do the same in Belarus. Citizens may also own, use and dispose of property there. They skip the formal immigration procedures that foreign nationals must follow, and they keep their national passports and identification papers.

  Russian serves as the working language of the common organs of the Union State. The official languages remain the state languages of the two participating countries.

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• 5. Promises Postponed

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  In 2001, Russia and then Belarus restored customs controls along their shared border. This effectively suspended the customs union, which stayed suspended until it was restored in 2010. Enthusiasm for the project had faded within a year of its inauguration.

  Lukashenko promised that a common currency would begin on the 1st of January 2004. It did not, and the plan slid back a year. The 1st of January 2005 passed without a common currency, and it slid again. The same happened in 2006. On the 2nd of February 2006, at a press conference in Minsk, Pyotr Prokopovich, chief of the National Bank of Belarus, said a "common currency might be introduced in 2007." That year also passed with no new money. Starting in 2008, the National Bank of the Republic of Belarus pegged the Belarusian ruble to the United States dollar instead of the Russian ruble.

  Until the 1st of January 2005, Belarus and Russia collected value-added tax, meant to finance the Union State, in the country of origin. From that date, they collected it in the country of destination, as most independent countries do. The change caused considerable confusion and disrupted many trade operations between the two. On the 10th of February 2005, private entrepreneurs in Belarus staged a one-day warning strike. They were protesting the new tax scheme and Lukashenko's economic policies.

  No official flag exists for the Union State. Since 1997, Belarus and Russia have failed to institute any symbols at all, though proposals abound. Two flag designs have been suggested. Each modifies the red flag of the Soviet Union to represent a state rather than communism, with two gold stars in the canton for the two countries. A proposed coat of arms adapts the double-headed eagle, holding the arms of both countries. A song titled "Sovereign Union of Nations" has been proposed as an unofficial anthem. It is adapted from the national anthem of the Soviet Union and refers to a wider union of the two nations.

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• 6. War and Defence

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  On the 10th of February 2009, Russia and Belarus launched the first stage of joint training programs for military officers, designed to merge their military structures. The resulting collective is called the Regional Forces Group of Belarus and Russia. Strategic and battle training under the program took place in February and March 2009.

  Russia's military doctrine adds a legal edge. It treats "an armed attack on the state-participant in the Union State, as well as all other actions involving the use of military force against it" as "an act of aggression against the Union State." That wording authorizes Moscow to "take measures in response."

  In November 2021, Russia and Belarus signed an agreement on common policies for taxation, banking, industry, agriculture and energy. Months later came the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine, part of which was staged from Belarusian territory. Both countries faced sanctions and boycotts. On the 3rd of March, Lukashenko said he stood fully behind Putin's campaign, citing Belarus's longstanding commitment to the Union State. On the 14th of March, Russian prime minister Mikhail Mishustin met Belarusian prime minister Roman Golovchenko in Moscow. Mishustin said they had "coordinated measures to protect our economic security and the technological sovereignty of Russia and Belarus." He also said they "consider it necessary to strengthen integration in the Union State." On the 18th of March, the Russian government announced that all restrictions on the movement of citizens between the two countries would be lifted. On the 1st of July 2022, Putin announced that the unification process had been accelerated to ease the economic damage of sanctions.

  In October 2022, after Russia mobilised reservists in September, about 9,000 Russian soldiers arrived in Belarus. The Belarusian ministry of defence said the aim was to create a "regional military grouping" of the Union State. That same month, it was announced that Russian air forces were patrolling the Union State's borders in Belarus.

  In an interview aired on Russian state television in late May 2023, Lukashenko said countries willing to join the Union State would receive nuclear weapons. His words were: "If someone is worried... (then) it is very simple: join in the Union State of Belarus and Russia. That's all: there will be nuclear weapons for everyone." He spoke just days after confirming that the movement of some Russian tactical nuclear weapons to Belarus had begun. Russia's defence minister had said he was signing documents on storing them there, a plan Putin first announced in March.

  On the 6th of December 2024, the 25th anniversary of the Union State treaty, Putin and Lukashenko signed a treaty on security guarantees within the Union State. They did so at a meeting of the Supreme State Council. Russia ratified it on the 28th of February 2025, and Belarus on the 4th of March 2025. The accord entered into force on the 13th of March 2025.

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• 7. An Open Invitation

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  The treaty allows other countries to join, and several have flirted with the idea. In 2001, Moldovan president Vladimir Voronin announced right after his election that he planned to bring Moldova into the Union of Russia and Belarus. That changed when the Alliance for European Integration won power in the 2009 Moldovan elections. Moldovan interest then shifted toward the European Union.

  In spring 1998-66.5 percent of voters in Transnistria backed joining the Union of Russia and Belarus in a non-binding referendum held by the Transnistrian authorities. In its 2006 referendum, the government said 97.2 percent of the population voted for integration into Russia. Analysts say Transnistria might unilaterally ask to join the Union. Neither member recognises it, so this is unlikely soon.

  Interest in a separate customs union with Russia and Belarus by 2010 was voiced by one prospective partner, and that Customs Union was formed as planned at the beginning of 2010. Kazakhstan has mentioned that it may join the Union State after some time. In late May 2023, however, President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev declined an offer from Lukashenko to join and called the union a "joke." As of June 2007, the opposition in Kyrgyzstan, locked in political turmoil, had initiated a nationwide referendum to join.

  Abkhazia and South Ossetia have both expressed a desire to join, though Belarus recognizes neither. On the 1st of August 2011, Putin stated his support for a union of Russia, Belarus and possibly South Ossetia. Andrei Savinykh, a spokesman for the Belarusian foreign ministry, rejected the idea. So did Dmitri Medojev, South Ossetia's ambassador to Moscow. He said: "Our people voted for independence in a referendum in 2006 and they do not relish the idea of becoming part of the Russian Federation." In April 2025, Vardan Ghukasyan of the Communist Party, newly elected mayor of Gyumri, said he supported joining the Union State.

  When speculation arose about Ukraine joining, then-president Viktor Yanukovych declared that Ukraine is an independent sovereign state and that nobody in government can question this. The issue was reconsidered after the Revolution of Dignity and the Euromaidan movement, which sought integration into the European Union. In 2019, during the presidency of Petro Poroshenko, Ukraine amended its constitution to lock in its course toward the European Union and NATO. In 2014, as Russian military intervention in Ukraine unfolded, Rustam Temirgaliev, deputy prime minister of the Russian-annexed Republic of Crimea, hoped southeastern Ukraine would form a "Ukrainian Federation" and join the Union State. Only the self-proclaimed Donetsk People's Republic and Luhansk People's Republic broke away, and the confederate Novorossiya project was frozen at the start of 2015. In 2021, Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskyy said the creation of a "true union state" between Belarus and Russia was a real danger for Ukraine.

  On the 12th of April 1999, the Federal Assembly of the FR Yugoslavia passed a decision on the accession of Yugoslavia to the Union State of Russia and Belarus. The Republic of Serbia is the legal successor of that decision. In 2007, Speaker of Parliament Tomislav Nikolić said he wished Serbia would strengthen its ties with the Union and eventually join it rather than the European Union. He resigned less than a week later. Nikolić went on to serve as President of Serbia from 2012-2017. Even so, Serbia had applied to join the European Union in 2009 and received full candidate status in March 2012, before his term began.

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• 8. Cycles of Interest

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  On the 15th of December 2006, talks over the Union State were intensifying. By January 2007, they appeared stalled. Lukashenko said: "The Russian leadership is demanding that we join the Russian Federation." He added: "I don't want to bury the sovereignty and independence" of Belarus. He also said that "we have different approaches and understandings of the building of a Union State" and opposed any incorporation of Belarus into Russia.

  On the 19th of October 2007, Russian prime minister Viktor Zubkov announced that the budget of the Union State would grow by no less than ten percent the following year. That led to speculation that the Russian government had renewed its interest.

  A meeting in Minsk on the 13th and the 14th of December 2007 drew considerable media attention. Lukashenko, Putin and State Secretary Pavel Borodin took part. They revived discussion of the Union Parliament, which had been planned but never realized. They also discussed a Union State Constitutional Act, an instrument that could strengthen the Union's authority. Borodin said five variants of the Act were considered, each with a transitional period of 7-10 years. Trade and energy issues were also on the table.

  On the 27th of May 2008, Lukashenko, acting as chairman of the Supreme State Council, named Putin, then Russian prime minister, as chairman of the Council of Ministers. The move raised speculation of a major political transformation. Borodin said the 2009 Union State budget would total 6-7 billion roubles, an increase of more than 2 billion roubles from 2008. On the 16th of November 2010, the Union State website announced that the Constitutional Act was 99 percent ready.

  Since 2015, the main effort to develop ties among former Soviet states has gone into the Eurasian Economic Union. It grew out of the Eurasian Customs Union established in 2010 and is modelled on the integration of the European Union. It has five member states: Belarus, Russia, Kazakhstan, Armenia and Kyrgyzstan. It is only an economic union, so political integration remains the business of the Union State. Tajikistan has also expressed an interest in joining the Eurasian Economic Union.

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