Russia, Belarus Will Link Governments, Economies

Russia and Belarus agreed Tuesday to form a new union, a move President Boris Yeltsin hopes will appeal to Russian voters nostalgic for the Soviet Union.

The agreement stops short of creating a single state, but it links the two countries’ political systems and economies.

Yeltsin, running for re-election in June, is trying to tap a powerful longing among many Russians for the days when their country was strong and dominated smaller nations like Belarus, with which it has historic, ethnic and religious ties.

President Alexander Lukashenko of Belarus is banking on Russia’s help to bail his country out of its economic crisis.

Unlike other former Soviet republics, Belarus has never had a strong nationalist movement. But the union has given Lukashenko’s nationalist opponents new fuel. About 30,000 protesters rallied against the union Tuesday night in the capital Minsk, shouting “Long Live Belarus,” until police dispersed them.