Vladimir Putin one step closer to taking over a European country this year.

Experts say the Russian President is suggesting that a new 2025 Union State Security Concept with Belarus supersedes the original 1999 Security Concept.

The Union State is a supranational union of the two countries.

Russia‘s strategy indicates that the new agreement may be “more expansive” than the original, further forwarding the Kremlin’s effort to annex Belarus, the Institute for the Study of War (ISW) reports.

The Secretary of Russia’s Security Council, Sergei Shoigu, has outlined that the agreement includes “the implementation of a co-ordinated policy in international affairs”, TASS reported.

He added: “It provides an assessment of the security situation in the world and on the borders of the Union State, defines the official approaches of the Union State member states (Russia and Belarus) to ensuring security in all its dimensions.

“The document takes into account the rich experience accumulated by our countries in countering the plans of external and internal destructive forces for the collapse of the Union State, as well as the severance of traditional ties between the fraternal Russian and Belarusian peoples.

“Moreover, it establishes common strategic goals, defines priorities, and sets specific tasks.”

Shoigu also said that the document Russia and Belarus signed in 1999 “has lost its relevance”, and that a new Security Concept will guide Russian and Belarusian security policymaking through the framework of the Union State.

He also described the new agreement as a “completely new…strategic planning document” which draws from the Russian and Belarusian constitutions, the December 1999 Union State Treaty, the Russian National Security Strategy, and the Belarusian National Security Concept.

Putin and Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko agreed in December 2024 to implement this new Union State Security Concept at some point in 2025.

The ISW wrote: “Shoigu’s framing of the new Union State Security Concept suggests that the new concept may be more expansive than the original 1999 document, which would forward Russia‘s goal of de facto annexing Belarus through the Union State framework.

“Shoigu notably gave this interview two days before the January 26 Belarusian presidential election, likely to frame Belarus as an undeniable part of the Russian-dominated Union State.

“The Kremlin will likely frame any pro-democratic protests against the upcoming Belarusian elections as part of a Western-backed hybrid war against Russia and Belarus, just as the Kremlin did in 2020.”