English

Putin wants to head Union State, State Duma vice speaker says

Sergei Baburin, deputy speaker of the State Duma, said that Russian President Vladimir Putin wants to become head of the Belarusian-Russian Union State.

"Since I had serious meetings and serious talks on this matter with the Russian and Belarusian presidents I will dare to say that the ball is now in the Belarusian court as there are no political or organizational objections to this model, but the political decision has not yet been taken in Minsk," the deputy speaker of the Russian lower parliamentary house said in an interview with the Narodnoye Radio station on Monday. "I am talking about this for the first time because I am tired of waiting for the presidents to stop discussing this behind the scenes. If the presidents cannot cope with the matter, then the public should ask them."

Mr. Baburin said that the presidency over the Union State would help Mr. Putin to retain power following the next year's presidential vote when his second term in office was set to expire. He said that Mr. Putin had not yet used his potential in full.

Mr. Baburin went on to say that the Kremlin should cancel the coming parliamentary and presidential votes in Russia, hold a referendum on the Union State's Constitutional Act and vest Mr. Putin with powers of governing the Union State. He said that Alyaksandr Lukashenka could be vice president.

He added that the countries perhaps also should unite their parliaments into a single parliament of the Union State and only then, some time later, hold the Union State's parliamentary and presidential elections.

Pavel Lyohki, spokesman for the Belarusian leader, told BelaPAN that the statement was a personal opinion of the Russian MP.

"As a MP, Mr. Baburin may suggest and say everything what he may find appropriate," Mr. Lyohki said. "As far as I know, he is not the first who has talked about this. The state secretary of the Union State, Pavel Borodin, once suggested a similar thing."

He added that he was not aware of the opinion of either Mr. Lukashenka or his Russian counterpart about such a development.