ABSTRACT
Proposals and plans to unite the two post-Soviet republics of Russia and Belarus under a common economic area and to introduce a single currency in the two states began as early as 1993, only two years after the USSR had collapsed. Yet until very recently the Russia-Belarus Union saw little progress in the way of its actual implementation. In the years that have passed since 1993, both Russia and Belarus have been facing serious economic challenges and crises, changes in domestic governments and political regimes; they have also confronted the effects of profound shifts in the international environment. Inevitably, the structural problems of politico-economic transformations in the two post-Soviet republics have been the major negative factors impeding the speed and success of the Union project. What kept the rhetoric of integration going both in Russia and in Belarus was primarily the figure of the Belarusian President Aliaksandr Lukashenka: reuniting Belarus with Russia was one of his office-winning policy proposals in the 1994 presidential campaign, and continues to provide him with massive support from the electorate.
