Hundreds of Belarusian citizens demonstrated in the capital Minsk against closer integration with the Russian Federation. Russian President Vladimir Putin has been pushing to bring the former Soviet republic closer to the Kremlin’s influence, demanding a Russian air base be constructed among other things.
Many analysts believe Putin wants to more formally inegregrate Belaurus, currently a member of the loosely established ‘Union State’, a holdover form the fall of the USSR, in order to formulate a way for him to retain power by changing the Russian constitution.
