Russian President Vladimir Putin, left, meets Belarus' President Alexander Lukashenko, right
Photo: Dmitry Azarov
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Union Presidents to Attempt to Swap Crude for Gas
Today’s get-together of presidents of Russia and Belarus will finally make clear whether Russia will stop shipping gas to Belarus January 1, 2007 and whether Russia will deprive Belarus of $1.7 billion to $2 billion a year generated by the so-called Belarus’ offshore. The outcome will depend on the readiness of Alexander Lukashenko to yield control over Beltransgaz to Gazprom under conditions advantageous for the gas monopoly of Russia.
Attended by Russia’s President Vladimir Putin and Belarus’ President Alexander Lukashenko, the Supreme State Council of the Union State of Russia and Belarus will focus today on “some issues of integrated cooperation of Russia and Belarus, including the 2007 budget of the Union State.”
The highlight will be Russia’s government’s resolution of December 12 on imposing duties on crude export to Belarus, said sources close to Belarus’ government on condition of anonymity. Alexander Lukashenko will attempt to make Russia maintain the duty-free delivery of crude, which is the current practice actually.
Another problem to be raised by the presidents today is the worth of Beltransgaz. According to sources with Gazprom, the gas monopoly is negotiating the contract with Belarus to ship gas at $200/ths cu meters settled, in part, by the stocks of Beltransgaz. Though the dates of the talks’ completion are yet unclear and no breakthrough has happened so far, Gazprom won’t cut off Belarus on the first day of 2007 as it did for Ukraine January 1, 2006, the sources said.
But there is an issue that will hardly trigger the dispute of Russia and Belarus. It is the 2007 budget of the Union State, which draft the Parliamentary Assembly approved at 3.782 billion rubles ($144 million) December 12, 2006.
www.kommersant.com
All the Article in Russian as of Dec. 15, 2006
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