Упрощенная HTML-версия
Author : G. Rapota
State Secretary of the Union State of Russia and Belarus
This is a very good project, which is designed to
create a common statehood. However, before
approaching the issue of common statehood, it
was necessary to resolve a number of very seri-
ous problems. It has been recorded in all the
principal documents. It was necessary to create
a single social field for the citizens of Belarus
and Russia. This includes free movement, the
freedom to choose the place of employment,
residence and studies. In other words, it was cre-
ating conditions so that Belarusians in Russia and Russians in Belarus do not feel strangers.
Another group of issues concerns economic integration. Our goal is to create a single field
for Russian and Belarusian business, for the industrial, financial and banking systems. There
are also foreign policy goals - specifically, to harmonize our foreign policy efforts on the in-
ternational arena. There are military-political and scientific and technical goals. Only after
they were achieved, there will be grounds to speak about the formation of the Union State,
the passage of a constitutional act, the introduction of a single currency and so on and so
forth.
A segment of this wide-ranging plan has largely been carried out, and very effectively so, es-
pecially the first, social segment. Both neighbors feel quite comfortable.
Belarus produces software products for all world trends. Russia also has such companies, but
we take this for granted because Russia is a big country. However, when a relatively small
country achieves high standards this is very impressive.
The level of integration within the framework of the Union State is higher than within the
Eurasian Union, not to mention the CIS. The open border alone is enough to show the fun-
damental difference, because there is no equivalent to this across the post-Soviet space.
Minsk enjoys the trust of both Russia and Ukraine, it is used as a venue for consultations.
This is of course thanks to the Belarusian leadership. How do they do it? Through their policy,
their diplomacy, their position, their assessment of the present realities, and their sincere
desire to resolve this conflict in some way or the other. It is certainly very important to elim-
inate tension near its southern borders. I believe that public opinion is unanimous in this re-
gard.
I believe that Russians and Belarusians will preserve their common cultural space. Consider
this: Russian film directors are working at Belarusian film studios.
Электронное приложение к журналу «
Международная жизнь
»
Russia and Belarus: The Space of Common Statehood