Duma Speaker Calls For Union Of Russia, Belarus, Ukraine

Russian Duma Speaker Gennady Seleznyov has pronounced himself in favour of forming a tripartite state integrating Russia, Belarus and Ukraine. At a Moscow press-conference Friday, he expressed the opinion that the formally existing union of Russia and Belarus requires "a third angle". "It is essential for us not to lose the Slavic component in the new globalist projects of the 21st century," he added. As one of the three co-chairmen of the Assembly of Slavic Peoples of Russia, Belarus and Ukraine, instituted last June in Moscow, he finds the mission of this institution to be very important. The Assembly has been designed to promote the unification of three fraternal states, according to Seleznyov.