MOTHER Russia is being courted by an ugly little suitor who wants to marry her for her money. The match is obviously unequal and can hardly lead to happiness. So why is Russia flirting instead of saying No?
The would be bridegroom, who is desperate to take President Boris Yeltsin to the altar and make an honest woman of him, is President Alexander Lukashenko of Belarus. He is proposing a union between Russia, a vast economically changing country of 120 million people, and his own small stagnant republic of only 10 million. Under his proposal Minsk and Moscow would have the same weight in political decision making.
It is as if a mouse were to woo an elephant. Of course, size is not a problem where there is love and common purpose. But what should be making democratic Russia think twice are Mr Lukashenko's extremely unpleasant habits.
The former collective farmchairman, who dyes his hair chestnut and combs it sideways over his head to hide his baldness, cannot quite make up his mind whether to model himself on Hitler or Stalin, but in the past he has praised both dictators.
Now he is bringing a dose of totalitarianism to Belarus, a sad little state, sandwiched between Russia and Poland, boasting 101 recipes using the potato but lacking the strong rational consciousness which has helped other former Soviet republics such as Ukraine and Georgia to weather the initial hardships of independence.
The iron fist manifests itself in Belarus in various ways. For example, President Lukashenko is forcing unemployed professors to sweep the streets and has declared an agricultural state of emergency; which means he will hover over the fields in his personal helicopter descending to make an example of any farm worker he finds slacking. As far as he is concerned, the laziness of the people is the reason for the republic's failure to flourish and not the fact that he himself has blocked market reform.
Anyone who disagrees can get out, if he or she is lucky enough to have a foreign passport. Last week an American diplomat was expelled from Minsk as well as a journalist from NTV, Russia's independent television station.
Despite this, throughout the week NTV and other Russian channels persisted in showing helmeted baton wielding police in Minsk beating and arresting demonstrators from the opposition, which began as a small organisation protesting against President Lukashenko's plans to water down Belarus's independence but which is now a large movement fighting for human rights.
Mr Lukashenko had pulled the plug on Russian stations broadcasting from Minsk and thought there was no danger of these shameful scenes reaching the screens in living rooms across Russia.
But of course the liberal electronic media in Moscow simply asked western TV companies for footage from the international pool and the truth quickly became known. Belarussians said broadcasts coming back to them from Russia were their only "breath of oxygen" because President Lukashenko had throttled their own media.
And then last Friday, as if nothing had happened, Mr Lukashenko turned up in Moscow wearing his best black suit to press his proposal of political marriage. He came along with the other leaders of the Commonwealth of Independent States, the grouping of ex Soviet republics, for their latest summit with Mr Yeltsin.
Each of the former subjects of empire sees its future relationship with Russia in a different way. For example, Ukraine wants to stay friends but also move closer to the west. Kazakhstan wants economic integration among the republics modelled on the ties within the European Union.
But after the divorce that took place in 1991 when the Soviet Union broke up, only Mr Lukashenko wants a tight embrace, which would amount to a remarriage or resurrection of the old union on the territory of Russia and Belarus.
It is quite clear why he wants this. Despite outstanding problems, chief among them being the government's failure to pay wages and pensions on time, Russia has made considerable progress towards the free market and has the potential to prosper. Belarus, on the other hand, is the economic basket case of Europe. President Lukashenko wants cheap Russian fuel and other economic assistance from his neighbour. He wants to be a dictator at Russia's expense.
But what is in it for Mr Yeltsin? A year ago, there were two advantages to cosying up to Belarus. One was that such a policy made the Kremlin leader look as keen as his Communist opponents on restoring lost Soviet era closeness, for which many Russians feel nostalgia. The other was that Mr Yeltsin could frighten NATO with the spectre of a union between Russia and Belarus.
But the Russian presidential elections have been fought and won the Helsinki summit has reassured the Kremlin leader that Russia's opinion will count when NATO expands. So, unless he wants to be tainted by association with a dictator, Mr Yeltsin should return Mr Lukashenko's ring.