BELARUS NEWS AND ANALYSIS

DATE:

04/04/2006

Lukashenko Faces Pressure on Gazprom News

By YURAS KARMANAU Associated Press Writer

MINSK, Belarus - Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko appeared briefly on state television for the first time in a week Tuesday, but he looked tired and pale and the silent footage did little to dispel persistent rumors that he is in ill health following protests over his disputed re-election.

The authoritarian leader faced further pressure with the news that Russian gas giant OAO Gazprom said it would demand that Belarus triple its payments for gas deliveries. Such a move could cripple the country's Soviet-style command economy.

Lukashenko's voice was not heard and he sat impassively in his chair in a 19-second TV clip of a meeting with Kazakhstan's ambassador _ in sharp contrast to the usual fiercely energetic demeanor of Lukashenko, who is noted for making hours-long speeches.

The opposition in this tightly controlled former Soviet republic claims Lukashenko disappeared from public view because of health problems after the unprecedented street protests by thousands of people over his March 19 election to a third term.

Hundreds of opposition protesters remain in jail after the breakup of a protest tent camp in a central Minsk square and a violent clash between demonstrators and riot police.

"Lukashenko has had a nervous breakdown, depression and heart problems," said Sergei Kalyakin, head of opposition presidential candidate Alexander Milinkevich's election headquarters. Lukashenko's aides have repeatedly denied such rumors and insisted the president was in good health.

Lukashenko's inauguration, initially scheduled for March 31, was postponed until Saturday due to unspecified reasons. And he failed to make a scheduled appearance on Monday evening at a celebration in Minsk marking the 10th anniversary of the planned union between Russia and Belarus.

Lukashenko, branded Europe's last dictator by Washington, has rejected international criticism of the election, which he won with 83 percent of the vote according to official results. The main opposition candidate Alexander Milinkevich, who received only around 6 percent, has alleged widespread fraud.

The European Union and the United States have said they would impose sanctions on Lukashenko including a visa ban and a freeze on his overseas assets.

But the Belarusian leader is facing more serious pressure from his traditional ally Russia over the threat to make Belarus pay European rates for Russian gas. Many interpret the price hike demand as a ploy by Moscow to acquire control of Belarus' national pipeline network, which carries Russian gas to Western markets.

Belarus is the only ex-Soviet republic that did not get a gas price hike from Moscow last year and it currently pays the rock-bottom price of roughly US$47 (euro39) per 1,000 cubic meters of natural gas.

Belarus should pay at least three times that rate, Gazprom deputy chairman Alexander Ryazanov said Tuesday.

"For us, raising prices for CIS countries is not a political decision, but (the) real economy in which we live today," Ryazanov said on NTV television, referring to the Commonwealth of Independent States, a loose alliance of ex-Soviet republics.

But the Russian decision has sent shivers through Belarus, which signed a union agreement with Russia in 1996 that envisaged close political, economic and military ties but stopped short of creating a single state.

Lukashenko rejected a scenario Russian President Vladimir Putin floated in 2002 under which Belarus would essentially be absorbed by Russia. Moscow, for its part, has become increasingly impatient about subsidizing Belarus' Soviet-style economy, about 80 percent of which is under state control.

Source:

http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/ap/fn/3769837.html