Республика Беларусь: Эволюция политики балансирования между Союзным государством Белоруссии и России и Евразийским экономическим союзом

Abstract

The article is devoted to comparing the policies of the Belarusian leadership in the Eurasian Economic Union (EAEU) and the Union State of Belarus and Russia. The author notes that at present the official Minsk considers the acquisition of integration preferences and subsidies and obtaining privileged access to the resources and markets of Russia and Kazakhstan as its main goal in economic integration projects in the post-Soviet space. At the same time, the Belarusian leadership is striving to slow down the process of connecting the economies of the countries participating in Eurasian integration. It is shown that since 2010 the Republic of Belarus has effectively used its participation in two integration projects that complement each other in the field of economic integration. Periodically, Minsk used the EAEU as an additional platform for dialogue with Moscow to receive Russian subsidies. At the same time, using the disagreements between the EAEU member states, President of the Republic of Belarus A. Lukashenko has repeatedly tried to resolve issues arising in the framework of Eurasian integration in his favor. The creation of temporary coalitions by Belarus with Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan and Armenia helped to block Russia’s proposal to introduce a single EAEU currency in 2014-2015. Currently, official Minsk expects to keep the EAEU in the format of a sponsor of the Belarusian economy, but is still not ready to deepen integration within the framework of the Eurasian integration project. The Belarusian leadership expects that the policy of balancing between the EAEU and the Union State will allow the republic to continue to receive and increase resource and financial support from the Russian Federation.