A treaty signed in Moscow by President Yeltsin and President Alexander Lukashenko of Belarus has marked another step the road to uniting the two states.
Yesterday's ceremony in the Kremlin furthered the process of re-integration without bringing about full union.
Not surprisingly Belarus is Russia's suitor in this situation. Few countries regard the Russian rouble as a strong currency these days but in Belarus, where it takes almost half a million local currency units to buy a single US dollar, there is a lot of demand for Moscow's currency.
The treaty will be put to the Russian State Duma for ratification on Monday.
