Syargei Sydorsky coming to Moscow :: Charter'97 :: News

Today the prime- minister of Belarus Syargei Sydorsky is coming to Moscow. On coming to Moscow the head of the Belarusian government is to discuss granting of the USD 1.5 billion and restructuring of the Belarusian debt for the Russian gas with the government of Russia.

The head of the “Ecom” analytical center Syargei Musienka supposes the Russian government loan to be used for repaying the above-mentioned debt. The head of the department for Belarus of the Institute of the C.I.S. Countries Aleksandr Fadeev considers, however, that the size of the loan is likely to exceed the Belarusian debt for the Russian gas, the Telegraf reports referring to the Vedomosty.
According to A. Fadeev, the Belarusian debt is also to continue increasing in the second half of 2007. With this in view , the analyst considers, Belarus will need the loan of USD 1.2-1.5billion. Syargei Musienka, in his turn, remarks that the retaining of the prime- minister’s post by Syargei Sydorsky is likely to depend on the negotiation’s results.
Since the beginning of the year the gas price for Belarus has been raised from USD 46.68 to USD 100 per 1000 cubic meters. Nevertheless, in the first half of the year Minks paid for the gas partially, that is USD 55 per 1000 cubic meters. At present Belarus owes to Russia USD 450 million for the delivered Russian gas. The debt repayment deadline for Belarus was 23 July but Belarus has not repaid the debt, yet.