BELARUS NEWS AND ANALYSIS

DATE:

20/01/2007

Belarus: Leader Warns of Hard Times

By STEVEN LEE MYERS

Confronted with higher natural gas and oil prices after a New Year's confrontation with Russia, President Aleksandr G. Lukashenko of Belarus said that energy conservation had become a national security priority. Belarus long enjoyed discounted prices for energy from Russia, subsidizing its industries and generating profits from the refining and export of gasoline and other oil products. Russia more than doubled the price of natural gas - $100 per cubic meter, compared with $46 - beginning Jan. 1. Belarus imposed a retaliatory fee on the transit of oil, but backed down last week after Russia turned off its main oil pipeline through Belarus, disrupting supplies across Europe. Mr. Lukashenko appeared to be bracing the country for austerity as energy-saving measures are adopted. "The next three, four years will not be an easy time," he said, according to Interfax, "but we will have to bear it."

Source:

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/01/20/world/europe/20briefs-belarusleader.html