Russian President Boris Yeltsin signed a treaty with Belarus Wednesday that increases political, economic and military cooperation between the two neighbors but declared it would not infringe on either country's sovereignty.
The treaty is the biggest step yet toward reintegration by any of the former Soviet republics since the empire collapsed in 1991, creating 15 separate states. However, it stops well short of merging the two countries."The union of Belarus and Russia doesn't create a single state," Yeltsin said at the signing ceremony in the Kremlin. "Both countries preserve their sovereignty."
Yeltsin and Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko hugged and kissed after signing the documents in a gilded Kremlin hall.
"There is no alternative to integration with Russia," Lukashenko said. "It is the well-considered choice of our country."
The two countries plan to coordinate economic reforms and military activities, create joint energy and transportation systems and possibly introduce a common currency. They will set Supreme Council, including top leaders of both countries, to outline joint policies.
The treaty appears to have solid support in both countries. Critics, however, argue that integrating the two struggling countries will only create more problems.
Belarusian opponents of the treaty, who fear the country will lose its independence to much larger Russia, rallied Tuesday in the Belarusian capital, Minsk. Belarus has 10 million people; Russia has 148 million.
Police confronted hundreds of youths who demonstrated against union with Russia by rolling squash in the city streets. According to Belarusian tradition, girls reject suitors by sending them squash.
In Moscow, the media and liberal politicians say that Belarus, which has yet to reform its Soviet-era economy, could become an economic burden to cash-strapped Russia.
Lukashenko responded angrily Wednesday, saying, "it will never be true that our small country will be a heavy burden to Russia."
Neither government presented the treaty to the public before the signing ceremony, and critics say its secrecy was also cause for concern.
Critics also warn that Russia should be wary of getting too close to Lukashenko, a strong-handed leader nostalgic for the old Soviet Union, who has curbed free expression, arrested political opponents and closed opposition newspapers. He has proposed - and Moscow has rejected - a full merger.
Yeltsin apparently took some of that criticism into account, signing an agreement that contained only nine clauses, a much shorter document than originally planned.