Russian and Belarusian leaders meet to discuss long-debated merger - International Herald Tribune

IHT:

Russian President Dmitri Medvedev met with the president of Belarus on Sunday to discuss the merger of the two former Soviet countries into a single state.

«The movement forward is very good,» Medvedev said after talks with Belarussian President Alexander Lukashenko.

Russia and Belarus signed an agreement in 1996 that called for close political, economic and military ties — and eventually a full merger — but negotiations on strengthening the union of the two countries have stalled.

«Politically and legally we created a union state, and now it is important to fill it with real content,» Lukashenko said.