New Front Lines of Gas War :: Charter'97 :: News

Russia has cut off natural gas supplies to Belarus on Wednesday at 10.00 a.m. Moscow time. “It was made because of absence of contracts between economic entities”, TransNafta’s General Director Vladimir Kondrachuk told ITAR-TASS. And on yesterday evening representatives of Belarus started urgent negotiations with TransNafta on continuation of gas supplies. The Belarusian side delayed answer to the uttermost. There was no information about talks a few hours before the assumed moment pf turning off gas taps. The Russians declared their readiness to continue talks throughout the whole day. Beside information about beginning of the talks, it was made known that Belarusian authorities decided to take a credit from Russia, in order to make a long-term contract for gas supplies with Russian concern Gazprom.

About a month ago Russian Prime Minister Kasyanov offered Belarus a credit to compensate rise of gas rate. Lukashenka and the Belarusian government have been refusing for a long time, but late in the evening on Tuesday Interfax informed that Belarusian Council of Ministers approved the project of credit agreement envisaging a Russian state credit amounting to 200 million dollars. The project of the credit agreement implies that in 2004 a credit to the Ministry of Finance of Belarus will be transferred in four trenches 50 million dollars each quarter at a rate three months Libor +0.75% annual revenue. The period of repayment is planned for the end of 2009 on the stipulation that in 2005 there will be no settlement of accounts.

According to the information of the “Finansovye Izvastija”, it means that Belarus is to sign a contract with Gazprom on natural gas supplies until the end of 2004 within the next few days. As for the price of the independent traders, it would not possibly be less than 46.7 dollars per thousand cubic meters proposed by TransNafta yesterday. No arguments are left for the Belarusian side to make a contract for a more reasonable price. The Russians showed that they are able to defend their positions and get their own ends. By twisting Lukashenka’s arms, they demonstrate him that he got extremely dependent on Russia through his own fault, convincing brotherly Russia for years of his wish to integrate. If you want to have gas on domestic prices, you are to become a part of Russia and a governor of the Northwestern territory. If not, relations should be based on market regulations. One should pay the real cost of gas, oil and electric power.