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Putin unexpectedly ups tempo of union with Belarus
By Richard Balmforth
MOSCOW, Aug 14 (Reuters) - Russian President Vladimir Putin unexpectedly upped the stakes in talks on union with Belarus on Wednesday, saying he was ready to hold a referendum on support for a single state followed by elections for a single president.
After talks with Belarus President Alexander Lukashenko, Putin, who two months ago appeared cool to the idea of a union, said if there was support from the peoples of Russia and Belarus elections could be held for a single president in March 2004.
"This is movement towards the creation of a single state," Putin told journalists in the Kremlin with Lukashenko sitting alongside. He said the Russian rouble could become the unified state's single currency from 2004.
Lukashenko, whose small Slav state of 10 million people is on Russia's western border, has made most of the running up to now on the union idea which he agreed in 1996 with Putin's predecessor Boris Yeltsin.
But the Belarus leader until now has stopped short of talking of a single state, referring to a merger of systems and economies that would preserve the two countries' sovereignty. He has said Belarus would not become one of Russia's regions.
Arriving back in Minsk after the talks, Lukashenko showed little enthusiasm for Putin's proposal, telling Belarus journalists the union agreement with Yeltsin would continue to be the basis for relations in the next few years.
"We have not exploited the existing agreement enough yet and in the next two or three years we will work strongly in that direction," he was quoted by Belarus news agencies as saying.
EMBARRASSMENT FOR KREMLIN
Lukashenko, in power since 1994, has been dubbed Europe's last dictator by the United States because of his squashing of political opposition at home and muzzling of the free press.
Despite warm handshakes in the Kremlin on Wednesday, Lukashenko's autocratic style is a potential embarrassment for Putin as he pursues strongly pro-western policies and relations between the two men are not warm.
By broaching the prospect of a full union under a single president, Putin appeared to be stepping up the pressure on the Belarus leader to decide exactly how far he wanted to go in pursuing his pet project.
The Kremlin leader was careful to leave open a second option, saying another possibility could be an alliance along European Union lines in which the two countries could enjoy economic integration while keeping their independence.
Putin clashed publicly with Lukashenko only last June on the issue, saying he would not go along with any attempts to restore the Soviet Union and weaken the Russian economy.
"A question that could be posed in a referendum would be: Do you agree Russia and Belarus should unite into a single state on the principles of equal citizens, equality of the Russia-Belarus region, and the creation of unified government organs, in accordance with the Russian constitution?" Putin said.
He said national referendums could be held in March next year, followed by elections to a unified parliament in December.
Putin said elections for a single head of state could be staged in March 2004.
The significance of this timetable would not be lost on Lukashenko. Putin will be running for re-election himself in Russia then and the clear implication was that he would in all likelihood become the first president of any unified state.
People in Belarus speak favourably of the idea of some sort of economic integration but not at the risk of losing sovereignty.
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