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Belarus The Commonwealth of Independent States
Geopolitically, Belarus is as strategically important
to
Russia today as it was in the times of Napoleon Bonaparte
and
Adolf Hitler. Therefore, repeated invitations were
extended to
Minsk from the CIS to join in a military alliance.
Shushkyevich
refused to sign the CIS Treaty on Collective Security that
six
other CIS states had signed in May 1992. He believed such
a move
would contravene the Declaration of State Sovereignty,
which
defines Belarus as a neutral state, and that an
independent
Belarusian army was essential to maintaining the
republic's
independence from Russia. The Supreme Soviet in April 1993
nonetheless voted to sign the treaty and eventually took
revenge
on Shushkyevich for his views on the CIS security treaty
by
dismissing him in January 1994, officially on charges of
corruption. At the same time, accords were also signed on
closer
economic cooperation with other CIS member states.
Although Belarus joined NATO's Partnership for Peace,
it
strongly supported Moscow's opposition to NATO expansion
in
Central Europe. The opposition, which realized that
Belarus's
full membership in NATO would not come about, suggested a
BalticBlack Sea zone of economic and political cooperation
encompassing
Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Belarus, Ukraine, and
Moldova. Not only was this idea an anathema to pro-Russian
elements in Belarusian society, but Poland and the Baltic
states
would reject it as well if it threatened their eventual
full
membership in NATO.
Data as of June 1995
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