Premiers Left Without Union Ruble :: Charter'97 :: News

Another meeting between the Premiers of Russia and Belarus Mikhail Kasyanov and Gennady Novitsky will be dedicated to the formation of the common economic space and the unique emission center of the union currency. It turns out that Minsk and Moscow have to go long way till they reach any of these goals.

Due to the illness of Mikhail Kasyanov his meetings’ agenda was changed and problems of economic relations with Russia’s closest neighbors were discussed on Wednesday night – with the Belarusian PM Gennady Novitsky and will be continued on Friday with the participation of the Ukrainian colleagues from the Russian-Ukrainian commission on trade-economic cooperation.

Belarus, Ukraine, Russia and Kazakhstan stated readiness to build common economic space and so now both Kasyanov and Novitsky may discuss two parallel processes – integration within the framework of the new union of four and the troublesome formation of the union state.

Along with the heads of the Central Banks of two countries – Sergei Ignatiev and Petr Prokopovich – Kasyanov was searching for a “consensus” in the formation of the common emission center. That’s the basic hindrance on the way to the introduction of “union” currency, scheduled for January 1, 2005. Moscow keeps insisting on Russian ruble as being the sole means of payment, while Belarusians aspire to at least have the right to emit them. On Wednesday the Belarusian delegation demonstrated its firmness. Belarus still speaks in favor of the formation of central banks’ system, consisting of the Central Bank of Russia, Belarus and inter-bank council of the union state.