BELARUS-RUSSIA MONETARY UNION DELAYED.

Russia and Belarus have entered into an agreement which seems certain to make a monetary union between the two countries a distant possibility. An intergovernmental protocol on the formation of the monetary union has been signed by the Russian and Belarusian Ministers for CIS Affairs, Valery Serov and Ivan Bambiza, Finansovye Izvestiya reported September 5. The document envisages a three-stage long-term process in which the parties must: a) establish the mutual convertibility of their respective currencies, b) harmonize their reforms and coordinate their monetary policies, and c) enter into a currency treaty on a common

monetary unit.

The issue of monetary union was under active consideration in Moscow in 1992-93, and was adopted as Belarus policy by president Aleksandr Lukashenko shortly after his election in 1994. But since then it has moved to the back burner, especially since moderate Russian reformers took the position that Russian should not subsidize the unreformed Belarusian economy for the sake of a politically-motivated monetary union.

Belarus’ Parliament Chairman Defends Turf.