Under pressure from his 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, Russian President Boris Yeltsin initiated the creation of the Union to harmonize the political and economic differences between the two countries.

[19] According to some observers, Lukashenko's intention was also to gain great power, becoming president of a future Russia-Belarus federation after Yeltsin's demise due to his all-time low popularity.

[22] The intention was to achieve a federation like the Soviet Union, with a common head of state, legislature, flag, coat of arms, anthem, constitution, army, citizenship and currency.

[24] The Treaty on the Creation of a Union State[7] creates legal framework as constitutional act and establishes the following institutions[25][11][18] The Union State based on its founding treaties has exclusive jurisdiction over the creation of a single economic space and legal foundations for a common market, monetary union, single tax and pricing policy, unified development and procurement of defence equipment, unified system of technical support for the armed forces.

Regular sessions of the Parliamentary Assembly House of the Union are held twice a year and for Quorum at least two third is needed to be present.

During a press-conference in Minsk on 2 February 2006, Pyotr Prokopovich, chief of the National Bank of Belarus, announced that a "common currency might be introduced in 2007".

[40] The Union State does provide citizens of Russia and Belarus the right to work and permanently settle in either country without formal immigration procedures otherwise mandatory for foreign nationals.

[41] Furthermore, the military doctrine of the Russian Federation provides that "an armed attack on the state-participant in the Union State, as well as all other actions involving the use of military force against it," should be deemed "an act of aggression against the Union State", authorizing Moscow to "take measures in response".

In both cases, two gold stars are placed in the canton of the red flag (to represent the two states of the Union).

This change gave rise to a considerable degree of confusion and has disrupted many trade operations between Belarus and Russia.

On 10 February 2005, private entrepreneurs in Belarus staged a one-day warning strike, protesting the new VAT scheme between the two countries and Lukashenko's economic policies.

He added: "From all the consultations and discussions, I have understood that we have different approaches and understandings of the building of a Union State", and opposed "the possibility of the incorporation into Russia [of Belarus]".

[64] However, on 19 October 2007, Russian Prime Minister Viktor Zubkov announced that the budget of the Union State "will grow by no less than ten percent next year, and that growth will provide for worthy funding of our common projects.

This meeting received a considerable amount of media attention and raised speculation that a Union State might indeed be the focus of a new initiative by both governments.

According to State Secretary Borodin, five variants of this Act were discussed at the meeting, each of which would involve a 7 to 10 year transitional period in the Union's development.

It is modelled on the integration of the European Union and comprises 5 member states: Belarus, Russia, Kazakhstan, Armenia and Kyrgyzstan.

[70] In November 2021, Russia and Belarus signed an agreement to provide for common policies on taxation, banking, industry, agriculture, and energy.

[72] On 14 March, Russian Prime Minister Mikhail Mishustin met with Belarusian Prime Minister Roman Golovchenko in Moscow, telling reporters that they "coordinated measures to protect our economic security and the technological sovereignty of Russia and Belarus" and "consider it necessary to strengthen integration in the Union State".

[74] On 1 July 2022, Russian President Vladimir Putin announced that the "unification" process has been accelerated to alleviate the economic damage of the sanctions.

[75] In October 2022, following the September 2022 mobilisation of reservists in Russia, a contingent of approximately 9,000 Russian soldiers arrived in Belarus.

According to the Belarusian ministry of defence the purpose of this deployment was to create a "regional military grouping" of the Union State.

"[78] This was just a few days after he had confirmed that the movement of some of Russia's tactical nuclear weapons to Belarus had begun and the Russian Defence Minister had said he was signing documents concerning the procedure for storing tactical nuclear weapons in Belarus,[79] the plan for which had first been announced by Putin in March.