Lukashenko is running out of gas

Moscow and Minsk have less than a week left until the end of the year to sign a new gas contract and find a solution to the division of oil duties. Controversial issues were discussed during a Saturday telephone conversation between Vladimir Putin and Alexander Lukashenko. Minsk asked for such a conversation. There is already one positive news for Lukashenko - Belarus, in any case, is not in danger of cutting off gas supplies from January 1, 2007. According to Vremya Novostey, key Russian departments, including the Foreign Ministry, strongly opposed this scenario. And the other day, the deputy head of Gazprom promised that “we are not talking about a shutdown... We do not yet have a contract with Belarus, but this does not mean that there is no gas for the country.” But Gazprom would still like to sign a gas contract before the end of the year.

There are obstacles to this. Thus, yesterday the Belarusian state news agency BelTA, citing the Ministry of Energy, reported that the privatization of Beltransgaz will take place in the first quarter of 2007. And the final price of gas for Belarus will be determined taking into account the sale of shares in the enterprise.

The United States has already intervened in the Russian-Belarusian dispute. Just a week ago, US Ambassador to Belarus Karen Stewart said that “energy should not be used as a political weapon in relations between countries.” Despite the bad relations between Washington and Minsk, the US ambassador unexpectedly stood up for Belarus: “It is possible to be guided by market principles in energy trade without losing sovereignty.”

In Moscow, these statements were met with surprise, to put it mildly. Moreover, the American diplomat did not limit herself to energy, but also announced that the United States does not recognize a possible referendum on the constitutional act of Russia and Belarus, since it doubts the democratic nature of Minsk conducting such procedures.

The Russian Foreign Ministry considered such words from the lips of the diplomat “unexpected both in form and content,” “incorrect” and distorting “the actual state of affairs.” At Smolenskaya they advised their American colleagues to “continue to rely on real facts” so that statements would be “more balanced.” “One of the basic principles in the approaches of the parties is the transfer of cooperation to universal market principles. To reproach Russia for this, to accuse it of energy blackmail means to turn everything on its head, pursuing some of your own goals that are far from genuine concern about Belarus,” the Russian Foreign Ministry said in a statement.

Olga TOMASHEVSKAYA, Minsk