Belarus Rids Herself of Russian Mediation 11:14, 16/09/2002, Radio Svaboda
Belarus opened talks on the direct electric energy supplies from Lithuania. The Minister of energy of Belarus Vladimir Semashko submitted a written address to the Lithuanian Minister of agriculture Petras Chesny. Belarus wants the “Belenergo” concern to get a permission to obtain directly from the “Lithuanian energy” 2,5bln kilowatt hours of energy every year. Belarus’ solvency is guaranteed by the Swiss bank “Banque Bruxelles Lambert”.
At present, the “Lithuanian energy” is selling its commodity through the Russian company “Inter RAO JES”. The head of the Lithuanian company Rimantas Yuozatis claims that changes in the agreements may cost Lithuania huge fines.
Belarus proposes to pay for the Lithuanian energy slightly more than the Russian exporter is paying now. That’s the reason why the proposal looks so lucrative to Lithuanians. Anyway, Belarus will only profit from that, for prices on the electric energy are higher when one deals through an intermediary.
The Minister of agriculture of Lithuania Pyatras Chesna called into question the legitimacy of the additional energy supplies to Belarus, for it gets further pumped to the Russian exporter. Lithuania is unsure that Belarus is solvent enough. However, given the Swiss bank’s guarantees sound convincing to them, Belarus won’t have to pay anymore to the Russian mediator, transporting energy from the neighboring Lithuania.
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