BELARUS NEWS AND ANALYSIS

DATE:

25/07/2007

Belarus Wants To Delay Paying Gas Debt To Russia

Belarus on July 24 asked Russia for more time to pay its $500 million gas debt to Gazprom, Reuters reported. Minsk missed a July 23 deadline to pay the debt accumulated since Gazprom increased the gas price for Belarus from $46.68 to $100 per 1,000 cubic meters as of January 2007. A delegation led by Belarusian Energy Minister Alyaksandr Azyarets held a second day of gas-debt talks at the Gazprom headquarters in Moscow on July 24, without results. "We are asking for a delay.... We will obviously have to pay a fine, which is also currently being discussed," Andrey Zhukau, a spokesman for Azyarets, told Reuters. Commenting on the talks, a Belarusian independent economics expert, Yaraslau Ramanchuk, said: "Gazprom has again found out what it's like to do business, Belarusian style. You have to pretend to be poor, sick, and unfortunate -- and at the end of the day wangle some kind of advantage." The Belarusian National Bank's current reserves are said to stand at $3 billion. JM

Source:

http://www.rferl.org/newsline/2007/07/3-cee/cee-250707.asp