Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko and Russian President Vladimir Putin met in Moscow on 5 and 6 April to discuss further integration into the Union State. In fact, Russia is increasingly absorbing Belarus. This is stated in the report of the Institute for the Study of War (ISW).

On April 5, Putin and Lukashenko held a tete-a-tete meeting, and on April 6 they took part in a meeting of the Supreme State Council of the Union State, where they discussed issues of union integration on issues of security, economy, defense, culture and the humanitarian sphere.

Putin said that Russian and Belarusian officials have completed 74% of allied programs. We are talking about the creation of a unified system of indirect taxes, measures to form common standards for the industry of both countries, as well as efforts to unify Belarusian and Russian trade legislation.. Also the purpose of import substitution (probably to ease Western sanctions) and support for the microelectronics industry.

“The Kremlin has likely been making efforts over the years to incorporate elements of Belarus’ defense industrial base, and both states are likely to use Union State economic integration efforts to step up their current sanctions evasion measures.. Putin and Lukashenko also likely celebrated strengthening economic cooperation to falsely reassure the Russian and Belarusian public that Western sanctions regimes would not have long-term consequences,” the ISW report says..

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Recall that ISW analysts assumed that the Kremlin would probably try to force Belarus to further integrate into a certain union state..