BELARUS NEWS AND ANALYSIS

DATE:

01/02/2007

Russia ready to discuss with Minsk any Union State options

MOSCOW, February 1 (Itar-Tass) -- Russia is prepared to discuss any options of creating the Union State with Belarus Minsk will find acceptable, Russian President Vladimir Putin told a news conference for Russian and foreign media in the Kremlin on Thursday.

"We should work calmly and unemotionally on the solution of those issues and problems that can be resolved in the course of a friendly and constructive dialogue. But we have seen repeated changes to the understanding of what the Union State should be like."

Putin recalled that first Minsk suggested building a Soviet-type state.

"But the USSR was a centralized, unitarian state. It looked like the republics had rights, but in reality they had none."

Yet, Russia was prepared to accept this option to have invited Belarus into the Russian Federation.

Then there emerged a different idea - that of protecting sovereignty.

"We shall be prepared to proceed along this path, too. But in that case we shall follow the same lines as the European Union. There are supra-national bodies of power. Optimal options of cooperation must be looked for."

In the current situation the Belarussian leadership cares a great deal about sovereignty.

"Let us then look for other ways. We are for the discussion of any acceptable options of creating the Union State Minsk will find acceptable, on the condition, though, there should be no chaos that happened at the end of 1980s, when there developed a confrontation between the union and Russian parliaments. We do not need chaos. Nobody needs chaos. A thorough, responsible approach must be made. Let us not be in a hurry, let us stop to think," Putin said.

Source:

http://www.tass.ru/eng/level2.html?NewsID=11210974&PageNum=0