Putin Does Not Plan to Absorb Belarus

Russia is not interested in absorbing anyone. This is how Russian President Vladimir Putin commented on plans to "absorb" Belarus by Russia.

“Russia is not interested in absorbing anyone; there is simply no practicality in that,” Putin said at a press conference after talks with Belarusian President Lukashenko.

“The issue is not absorption; the issue is coordinating economic policies, as is done in many other integration associations. Everything else is superficial nonsense, the attempts of our adversaries to slow our integration process. This is done so that there are no effective and dangerous competitors in global markets,” Putin stated.