...Second President of the Russian Federation and the first to remain sober. Because of constitutionally mandated term limits he is the current Prime Minister of Russia. His sock puppet, Dmitry Medvedev, was installed in the 2008 presidential elections. Putin is credited with bringing political stability and re-establishing something like the rule of law. During his eight years in office Russia's economy bounced back from crisis, seeing GDP increase, poverty decrease and average monthly salaries increase. During his presidency Putin passed into law a series of fundamental reforms, including a flat income tax of 13%, a reduced profits tax, and new land and legal codes. Under Putin, a new group of business magnates controlling significant swathes of Russia's economy has emerged, all of whom have close personal ties to Putin. The old bunch, without close personal ties to Putin, are in jail or in exile...'s surprise announcement he favors a merger between the two countries into one state as in the days of the USSR.
The opposition raised the alarm over what it said were Russian dreams to essentially annex Belarus while sociologists said that support for re-unification with Russia was dwindling in the country year-by-year.
Meeting pro-Kremlin youth at a lakeside camp a day earlier, Putin said it would be "desirable" for Russia and Belarus to unite into one country although the final decision rested with the Belarusian people.
Throughout his rule of over a decade, Putin has made no secret of his admiration for the Soviet Union, whose collapse he once famously described as the "greatest geopolitical catastrophe" of the 20th century.
Belarus foreign ministry front man Andrei Savinykh said he had no comment on Putin's remarks, noting only that President Alexander Lukashenko had said in the past that Belarus illusory sovereignty was a "holy thing".
Neither Lukashenko nor any other top Belarus government figure has offered any reaction to Putin's comments so far.