Putin suggests selling Russian gas to Belarus on credit :: Charter'97 :: News

The Russian government should consider a loan to Belarus to pay for Russian gas supplies, Russian President Vladimir Putin told key ministers during his regular Monday meeting with them. "If needed, consider with your Belarusian colleagues an issue of a loan to Belarus for the amount needed by the country so that individual consumers and enterprises do not have any problems," he said.

Deputy Prime Ministers, Alexei Kudrin and Viktor Khristenko, will be responsible for this issue while Prime Minister Mikhail Kasyanov is on vacation starting Monday.

Putin also said that during two telephone conversations with Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko last week, Lukashenko agreed that Belarus should start buying gas from Russia at market prices.

But Khristenko, who is responsible for the oil and gas sector in the government, said that Belarus has been refusing to pay market prices for Russian gas.

"In reality they are refusing to switch to market prices, they want to buy gas at Russian domestic prices but this means losses for Gazprom," he told Putin.

Russia`s gas giant Gazprom stopped supplying gas to Belarus January 1 but says it is ready to restore supplies at U.S. $50 per 1,000 cubic meters. According to Gazprom, Belarus wants to pay $40-41 per 1,000 cubic meters.

Russia-based international gas producer and trader Itera, and independent gas trader Transnafta threatened last Friday to stop gas supplies to Belarus but signed an agreement Saturday to continue supplying Belarus with gas until Thursday.