PRESIDENT Boris Yeltsin yesterday approved a draft treaty that would propel Russia into a union with Belarus, despite liberals' fears that he might be signing away some of his powers to a hardliner.
Mr Yeltsin approved the draft of a document that will be signed tomorrow with the Belarus President, Mr Alexander Lukashenko.
A foreign affairs adviser to Mr Yeltsin, Mr Dmitry Ryurikov, said the agreement could still be amended. This left doubts about just how close ties between the two countries, both Slav states and former Soviet republics, will be. Previous accords on integration have had few practical implications.
But Mr Yeltsin appeared to have resisted a rearguard action by Russian liberals who fear the authoritarian Mr Lukashenko could gain a slice of power at the Kremlin's expense, posing questions about democracy, stability and human rights.
"You cannot talk about negotiating integration with a state where there is political repression, conditions for the normal existence of the opposition are ruled out and the work of the media is restricted," liberal leader Mr Grigory Yavlinsky said.
Russia, a nuclear state of nearly 150 million people, has been working on forming a "community" with its poorer western neighbour of about 10 million under a deal signed by Mr Yeltsin and Mr Lukashenko last April.
Kremlin aides say Russians will not wake up in a new, single state on Thursday but that the accord has "colossal importance".
A draft of the new treaty obtained by Reuters was confusing and left many questions unanswered.
It provided for a union under which the two states would be independent but co ordinate their foreign, economic and military policies closely.