ABSTRACT
The year 1995 had complex domestic and international dimensions. Russia was waging a devastating and extremely unpopular war in Chechnya. The military campaign was poorly prepared, unusually brutal and without clearly defined goals. Belarusian frustration deepened when the Russian monopoly Gazprom demanded payment of arrears and refused to take into consideration the fact that Belarus was maintaining Russian military bases on its soil and the fact that Belarus had agreed to return all the nuclear weapons stationed in Belarus without any compensation. The democrats and reformers from Russia's Choice and Yabloko feared that the reunification rhetoric would strengthen their opponents in the forthcoming legislative elections and that the charismatic Alexander Lukashenka who already enjoyed considerable popularity in Russia might emerge as a serious contender in Russian's own presidential elections the next year. The events in Chechnya seriously affected the balance of political forces in Russia.
