Nevertheless, the nature of the political entity remained vague. Under pressure from his own 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, then Russian President Boris Yeltsin initiated the creation of the Union in order to harmonize the political and economic differences between the two nations. According to some observers, Lukashenko's intention was also to gain great power, becoming the president of a future Russia-Belarus federation after Yeltsin's demise due to his all-time low popularity. However, after the resignation of Yeltsin, Vladimir Putin was elected in 2000 to succeed him as president of Russia, thus forcing Lukashenko to cancel his plans and keep balance between the independence of Belarus and Putin's increasing pressure for further integration among the two countries into the Union State.