| It is planned to replace 25% of the energy resources consumed in Belarus with local fuels in order to “produce electrical and thermal energy from our own resources,” said President Alexander Lukashenko. Today the country is more than 90% dependent on imported energy. “We will ensure 25-30% overall independence for this type of resource, consumed for the production of energy and fuel, which means we will ensure our sovereignty and security. There is no more important task for today,” the presidential press service reports Lukashenko’s words. Gazprom announced its refusal to supply gas to Belarus at domestic Russian prices; the contract for 2004 has not yet been signed. RAO UES also announced its intention to increase prices. Olga TOMASHEVSKAYA, Minsk
Union of Diplomacy and Science
Yesterday, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov kept his promise to “continue to use the potential of a variety of sages and continue the regular meetings begun by his predecessors with representatives of scientific circles,” expressed in a conversation with VN at the minister’s first press conference in March. For the first time, an informal meeting of the Scientific Council under the Russian Foreign Ministry was held on Smolenskaya Square under the chairmanship of Lavrov. Its topic was “Current tasks of Russian foreign policy”; the conversation focused on the prospects of the CIS. Sergei Lavrov's guests were directors of academic institutions, representatives of think tanks, and political scientists. “The integration of practical diplomacy with science is a global trend. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs will implement it in different forms in order to raise the level of understanding of the modern world,” Alexander Kuznetsov, director of the foreign policy planning department of the Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, told VN. Katerina LABETSKAYA
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