DATE=12/8/1999
TYPE=CORRESPONDENT REPORT
TITLE=RUSSIA / BELARUS (L ONLY)
NUMBER=2-256966
BYLINE=CHARLES MAYNES
DATELINE=MOSCOW
CONTENT=

VOICED AT:

INTRO:  After months of negotiations and delay, the 
leaders of Russia and Belarus have signed a treaty 
committing the two former Soviet republics to merge 
into a confederate state.  Charles Maynes reports from 
Moscow.

TEXT:  When the signing ceremony was postponed a few-
weeks ago because of Russian President Boris Yeltsin's 
ill health, many speculated Russia was becoming less 
enthusiastic about the proposed merger.

But it was a cheerful looking President Yeltsin who 
greeted his Belarussian counterpart, Alexander 
Lukashenko, to the Kremlin and hailed the union treaty 
an epoch-making moment.

        /// YELTSIN ACT - IN RUSSIAN - FADE UNDER ///

Mr. Yeltsin said the agreement is in the best 
interests of both Russia and Belarus, and is based on 
the goodwill and equal sovereignty of both countries.

President Lukashenko called the treaty, in his words -
- a moral restoration of justice -- coming eight-years 
to the day Russia, Ukraine, and Belarus signed a 
treaty which led to the collapse of the Soviet Union 
just weeks later.

But despite the pomp and ceremony, the treaty is far 
from establishing true integration of the two former 
Soviet republics.  The agreement -- which calls for 
joint institutions and a common currency by the year 
2005 -- offers little beyond what already exists in 
previous cooperation treaties.

That was a point acknowledged by the Belarussian 
president who had harshly criticized the draft union 
treaty when it was first published in October.  The 
agreement, Mr. Lukashenko said, is -- only the 
beginning.   (SIGNED)

NEB/CM/JWH/ENE/RAE



08-Dec-1999 09:45 AM EDT (08-Dec-1999 1445 UTC)
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Source: Voice of America
.