Union State of Russia and Belarus

Union State Союзное государство (Russian) Саюзная дзяржава (Belarusian)
Headquarters	Staraya Square, Moscow
Largest city	Moscow 55°45′N 37°37′E / 55.750°N 37.617°E / 55.750; 37.617
Official languages	Belarusian Russian
Type	Supranational union, de facto confederation
Member states	Belarus  Russia
Leaders
• Chairman of the Supreme State Council	Alexander Lukashenko
• Chairman of the Council of Ministers	Dmitry Medvedev
• State Secretary	Pavel Borodin
Legislature	Supreme State Council
Area
• Total	17,332,837 km2 (6,692,246 sq mi)
Population
• 2016 estimate	156 million
• Density	9.0/km2 (23.3/sq mi)
HDI (2015)	0.800 very high
Currency	Belarusian ruble Russian ruble
Time zone	(UTC+2 to +12)
Date format	dd.mm.yyyy
Drives on the	right
Website www.soyuz.by
^ Including Crimea and the Kuril Islands, both disputed territories of Russia.

The Union State (Russian: Союзное государство; Belarusian: Саюзная дзяржава), also referred to as the Union State of Russia and Belarus (Russian: Союзное государство России и Беларуси; Belarusian: Саюзная дзяржава Расіі і Беларусі), is a supranational union consisting of the Russian Federation and the Republic of Belarus.

The Commonwealth of Belarus and Russia was founded on 2 April 1996. The basis of the union was strengthened on 2 April 1997, with the signing of the "Treaty on the Union between Belarus and Russia" at which time its name was changed to the Union of Belarus and Russia. Several further agreements were signed on 25 December 1998, with the intention of providing greater political, economic, and social integration.

Nevertheless, the nature of the political entity remained vague. Under pressure from his own political opponents, who argued for a reunion of the two states, and from Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko, who sought to tie his excessively weak economy to Russia's stronger one, then Russian President Boris Yeltsin initiated the creation of the Union in order to harmonize the political and economic differences between the two nations.Kazakh President Nursultan Nazarbayev had put forward a similar proposal in 1994, envisioning the founding of a Eurasian union, but this proposal was not adopted until 29 May 2014 with the formation of the Eurasian Economic Union. The Treaty on the Creation of a Union State of Russia and Belarus was signed on 8 December 1999. The intention was to achieve a federation like the Soviet Union, with a common president, parliament, flag, coat of arms, anthem, constitution, army, citizenship, currency, etc. The Union was ratified by the Russian State Duma on 22 December 1999 and the National Assembly of Belarus on 26 January 2000. On the latter date the Treaty and the Union came into effect.