foxhound_nn

Feanor, ты же знаешь, I know. I just point out that it's the best form of relations with Belarus from the russian point of view

Feanor

Well why not integrate further, giving access to energy resources at internal prices and a chance for their manufacturing companies to expand into Russia, providing jobs and cheap goods. It would be good for both sides.

foxhound_nn

as I said, I think benefits are only for Belarus....
At least first 15 years of this union

texacali

Problem is both Belarus and Russia are centrally controlled economies. Will Lukashenko bow down to Moscow? Advantage to Russia is access to EU. Selling oil and gas to Belarus, for resale, at internal prices may soon stop. Is this the leverage encouraging a re-unification?

Alex_Ivanov

I think Russia will try to integrate Belarus by just buying it out. The billion credit Lukashenko got from RF to pay for Russian gas is just the first step.

foxhound_nn

what!? what do you mean by 'access', maybe i didn't understand something

foxhound_nn

Agree. The only question is what for

Alex_Ivanov

Belarus does have some assets. Enterprises, etc.

braindead

Bogs . They have bogs . Russia is making the Pripyat marshes their first line of defence against coming NATO invasion !

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Ray

Is a NATO invasion in the offing?

No wonder Putin is speaking so belligerently.

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"Some have learnt many Tricks of sly Evasion, Instead of Truth they use Equivocation, And eke it out with mental Reservation, Which is to good Men an Abomination."

I don't have to attend every argument I'm invited to.

HAKUNA MATATA

Feanor

Oh yeah. That's right. Watch the M1's get stuck in Belarussian marshes

Listening to Putin, you'd think it's already in progress

braindead

On my previous post i forgot to add ´sarcasm´-brackets ....
One of my co-workers is a girl from Belarus , she visits the country quite frequently . When I asked what she thinks Russia will get out of this deal , she guessed that most likely Russia wants to cut out a middleman from gas transit . And to win some prestige points .

texacali

I should have said a more intimate proximity to the EU through the former Soviet state.
The great game is not dead in our century, nor is the value of buffer states diminished by the recent peaceful co-existence between Europe and Asia.
It appears to me that a confederation or commonwealth of the old USSR has a good chance of occurring since the provinces and their administrators share the Russian language. If it can be sorted out to suit all concerned, the reborn Union may indeed become a power worthy of all respect from the West. I refer to the rights and freedom most of the West enjoys, not the system we live under.
It was appalling to see the disintegration of a coherent state into crony semi-capitalism and the re-introduction of dynastic dictators. I am waiting to see the dictatorship of the proletariat, after 90 years of promise.
A unified air defence on the Belarus border is worth how much?

Feanor

Worth how much against who? Against a NATO invasion? Well if they finish the RLS in Voronezh, then it would probably be fairly effective, given it's equipped mostly with newer S-300PMU-(1/2) complexes, and that the Moscow air-defense has begun accepting the new S-400. Add to that tactical SAMs (Buk, Tor, Osa), advanced AA-gun platforms, Shilkas, Tunguskas, and shoulder-launched infantry SAMs, it can probably be considered one of the more effective air defense networks on the planet.

texacali

I didn't mean to imply a threat to Russia here. It is simply that there is an institutional memory at work. The US continues to regard what remains of the USSR, that is Russia, as an adversary. The initiative of placing missile interceptors on ex-Soviet territory raises red flags with the Kremlin. Naturally there will be a countermove, and Belarus is that much closer to NATO and the EU. The political posturing will continue until Russia re-aligns with it's old republic members or China develops stronger relations with those ex- Soviet states, or a pan islamic movement solidifies what now exists.