BELARUS NEWS AND ANALYSIS

DATE:

20/11/2006

Belarus To Ask For Compensation If Russia Raises Gas Price

Belarusian President Alyaksandr Lukashenka said on November 17 that Belarus should buy natural gas at Russia's domestic price, Belapan and Reuters reported. "The essence of our policy is that both Belarusians and Russians are one people and that means that conditions also should be equal," Lukashenka said while visiting the Belshyna tire factory in Babruysk. Lukashenka said Minsk will demand compensation from Moscow for transit rights and the use of military facilities in Belarus if gas prices go up sharply in 2007. "We must propose a compensation table and propose that Russia compensate us for losses. Let them pay for what once might have been free," he added. Meanwhile, Russian lawmaker Valery Yazov, head of the State Duma's Committee on Energy, Transport, and Communications, said the same day that Gazprom intends to increase the gas price for Belarus from $47 to $230 per 1,000 cubic meters, that is, to the level currently charged by RosUkrEnergo, which supplies a mix of Russian-Turkmen gas to Ukraine. JM

Source:

http://www.rferl.org/newsline/2006/11/3-cee/cee-201106.asp