Dvorkovich Allowed Time To Belarusian Authorities Until End Of Day

The Russian side is waiting for constructive suggestions on gas for no longer than Tuesday evening.

Belarus has to present the Russian Federation proposals on resolving the gas issue by the end of Tuesday, Russian Deputy Prime Minister Arkady Dvorkovich stated, according to interfax.ru.

"We are waiting for proposals from our colleagues. They’ve promised to send them until the end of the day," – he said.

"We have different approaches to this issue", – Dvorkovich said.

Last week and Lukashenka flew to Moscow and met with Russian President Vladimir Putin, but the gas conflict was not resolved.

Later, deputy chairman of "Gazprom" Valery Golubev informed that Belarus had not paid the debt for gas yet, and that the Russian and Belarusian sides had not settled the issue of debt for gas supplies.

Head of the Belarusian Energy Ministry Uladzimir Patupchyk announced the repayment of debt a month ago. But since then, the plans of Belarus have not been confirmed.

In the period from January to September 2016, the Belarusian consumers accumulated debt for gas deliveries in the amount of $ 340 million.

As is reported, Russia cut oil supplies to Belarus from 5.3 million tons to 3.5 million tons in the third quarter. Deputy Prime Minister Dvorkovich and Energy Minister Alexander Novak explained the reduction by Belarus’ non-payments for Russian gas. It was planned to reduce the supplies by 500 thousand tons, up to 3 million tons, in the fourth quarter.