However, Belarus, as other republics in the CIS, started to drift away from Russia, which at that time was attempting to stabilize its broken economy and ties with the West.

[1] In the early 1990s, Russia was concerned that its involvement in the near abroad state such as Belarus would risk the relations it was trying to build with the West.

[4][5] Russian President Boris Yeltsin said after signing, in February 1995, the Treaty of Friendship, Good-Neighborliness and Cooperation with Belarus, that "the two nations [had] shared a common historical experience over many centuries".

Among all CIS countries, Belarus has the greatest rights to such a relationship due to its geographical location, its contacts with Russia, our friendship and the progress of its reforms.

[7] The Treaty on Equal Rights of Citizens between Belarus and Russia was signed in December 1998, covering employment, and access to medical care and education.

These activities included the United States military activity in the post-Soviet space since the September 11 attacks in 2001, the eastern European states shift towards the west, the plans to deploy NATO's missile defense system in Poland or the Czech Republic, and above all the rise of the colour revolutions.

[9] As Russia realized that a full integration with Belarus would be costly, it shifted its foreign policy towards a more pragmatic direction.

[12][13][14] In 2019, Lukashenko had bilateral talks in Sochi with Russian president Vladimir Putin and declared that their two countries "could unite tomorrow, no problem.

[20] Lukashenko afterwards accused Russia of trying to cover up an attempt to send 200 fighters from a private Russian military firm known as the Wagner Group into Belarus on a mission to destabilize the country ahead of its 9 August presidential election.

[22] Following the presidential election and eruption of new protests, Lukashenko mentioned by the end of August that Belarus would negotiate refinancing of its state debt worth $1bn with Russia.

[28] On 25 March 2023, Russian president Vladimir Putin announced that Russia would be stationing tactical nuclear operations in Belarus.

[29] On August 12, 2024, Alexander Lukashenko has refuted the idea about unification with Russia, stated that any attempt to annex Belarus would result in war.

[31] Before 2004, Gazprom sold gas to Belarus for Russian domestic prices, mainly due to the political integration process between the two countries.

Commenting on the close military cooperation between the two countries, Lukashenko likened Belarus' 10 million people as a human shield for Russia against the West, a service that he said "was not free".

[31] In July 2009, the so-called Milk War erupted, when Russia banned all dairy imports from Belarus, saying that they did not comply with new regulations.

[31] On 31 May 2012, Russian President Vladimir Putin was critical of the European Union's sanctions against Belarus, and in a joint statement Putin and Lukashenko said: "Russia and Belarus will coordinate efforts to counter attempts to interfere in the internal affairs of the Union State and apply pressure through the introduction of restrictive measures or sanctions.

[36] as well as branches in: Kaliningrad, Smolensk, St.Petersburg, Rostov-on-Don, Nizhny Novgorod, Kazan, Ufa, Yekaterinburg, Novosibirsk, Krasnoyarsk and Khabarovsk.