What if Ukraine and Belarus never left the Soviet Union?

As it says on the title. What if, during the collapse of the Soviet Union, Ukraine and Belarus didn't leave the Soviet Union (i.e. Russia). What would be the effects?
 
Difficult. A collapse is called a collapse for a reason. You would have to prevent the Ukraine as the biggest non-Russian republic from bailing as it was at that point when even Gorbachev said that continuing the USSR would be nonsense. On the other hand, the actual threshold was the August Coup. This is when the Russian SFSR started to seize more and more power from the Union and only after that did e.g. the Baltic Republics (re-)gain serious international recognition. Yeltsin demontaged the USSR after the coup, so there was no reason to stay in the house.
 
The regime of Belarus has always tried to keep ties with Russia but the USSR framework was dead. They created a special political union that apparently aims to be a confederation but so far it's but an EU-style supranational union.

To keep the Ukraine is tough. I believe the Russian-speaking East would have to start a civil war: it can't be done in a pretty way with a post-1991 PoD. Go New Union Treaty!
 
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