BELARUS NEWS AND ANALYSIS

DATE:

29/01/2007

Belarus' President Didn't Cancel Crude Transit Agreements with Russia, His Briefer Said

Pavel Legkiy, who is the briefer of Belarus' President Alexander Lukashenko, has refuted all reports saying that Lukashenko allegedly annulled crude transit agreements with Russia, Interfax reported.

The mere emergence of such news is "pure provocation," Legkiy said, emphasizing that the Belarus' authorities intend to clear out circumstances of the incident in the near term. "Beyond all doubt, the aim of this disinformation is an attempt to destabilize relations of Belarus and Russia," the briefer explained.

Belarus' President Alexander Lukashenko suggested recalculating all payments, imposing additional duties on Russia's companies, the ITAR-TASS news agency announced Sunday to report cancellation of crude transit agreements by Lukashenko.

Early January, Belarus imposed the duty on crude transit via its territory. Once Russia refused to pay, Minsk started stealing the crude from pipelines. The response of Moscow was to cut off deliveries in the Belarus' direction, which halted supplies to Europe January 8. The parties compromised January 12, resuming deliveries to Europe in part and in whole.

But January 23, Lukashenko vowed to claim from Moscow to pay for the land lease under the pipelines running through the soil of Belarus.

Source:

http://www.kommersant.com/p-9963/Crude_transit/