The Union state in the perception of the political parties of Russia and Belarus

Introduction. The Union State of Belarus and Russia is one of the privileged integration formats for the Russian Federation. However the Union State and the participating countries are under pressure caused by internal and external challenges including those rooted in the political dimension. The lack of the union-level political community and the weak institutionalization of public support for the Russian-Belarusian integration increase their danger. The purpose of this article is to identify the specifics of the perception of the Union State by the political parties of the Russian Federation and the Republic of Belarus as an integration format taking into account the key vectors of the state integration policy articulated by them.

Materials and methods. The main research methods include comparison, traditional and formal­ized study of documents. The research is based on the program texts of the political parties of the Russian Federation and the Republic of Belarus – their of­ficial programs and charters, election documents, as well as their party websites and mass media.

The results of the research. The analysis of these materials made it possible to characterize the dominants and constants of the party discourse in Russia and Belarus, to show the similar and distinc­tive features in it. The major issues concerning the integration policy,recorded in party documents are shown. Special attention is paid to the parties rep­resented in the national parliaments as having the greatest legal opportunities to influence the adop­tion of integration decisions. Almost all of these parties can be considered as pro-integration ones. At the same time, the limited political functionality of the parties in both countries and the lack of posi­tions on issues of integration policy and prospects for the development of Russian-Belarusian integra­tion elaborated in detail in the party programs are emphasized. The interest in the Union State in the party programs as a whole is inferior to the interest in the Eurasian integration.

Discussion and conclusions. The necessity of increasing the political functionality of Russian and Belarusian parties as agents of union construc­tion is substantiated. The mechanisms of the federal and regional levels that allow Russian parties to become more active in this capacity are articulated. The trends in the evolution of the party system of the Republic of Belarus are revealed, which allow us to predict a relative improvement in the prospects for creating new pro-integration parties and promot­ing inter-party diplomacy with the participation of the leading parties of the Russian Federation in line with the public diplomacy of the Union State.

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