BELARUS NEWS AND ANALYSIS

DATE:

06/10/2008

Putin urges Belarus to adopt Russian ruble

The Associated Press

MINSK, Belarus: Belarus should switch from dollars to rubles in paying for energy shipments, Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin said Monday, as the two neighbors and allies held difficult talks on energy prices.

Putin - who also holds the title of prime minister of a loosely defined Russia-Belarus union - urged the ex-Soviet neighbor to move toward adopting the Russian ruble as a single currency.

"We mustn't take the issue of a single currency off our agenda," Putin said during talks with Belarusian officials in Minsk.

He said that, as a first step, both Russia and Belarus should phase out the use of dollars in their energy trade. Belarus' economy depends on relatively cheap energy supplies from Russia.

"I don't understand why we are still trading in U.S. dollars ... while we are well aware of the problems faced by the U.S. economy," Putin said.

In the past, authoritarian President Alexander Lukashenko has balked at Russia's push for adopting the ruble, fearing it would erode his power, and he sparred with Putin at the start of this year when Russia increased energy prices for Belarus.

Previous negotiations on strengthening the Belarus-Russia union stalled in 2002, after Lukashenko rejected Putin's proposal to incorporate his nation into Russia.

But with Russia's state Gazprom natural gas planning to double Belarus' gas price next year, Lukashenko has made an effort to improve ties with the West by releasing opposition figures whom the West described as political prisoners.

"Lukashenko has learned how to blackmail Russia with shifting toward the West," said Belarus' first post-Soviet leader turned opposition politician, Stanislav Shushkevich.

Yaroslav Romanchuk, an independent political analyst, said Lukashenko could also use the issue of recognizing Georgia's breakaway provinces of South Ossetia and Abkhazia as a bargaining chip in the tense talks over gas prices.

Only Nicaragua and the Palestinian group Hamas so far have followed the Moscow in recognizing the two regions' independence after Russia's August war with Georgia. The Russian ambassador to Belarus has voiced dismay about Lukashenko's failure to do so as well.

Lukashenko has said it was an issue for parliament to consider, and assured he was not trying to move out of Russia's sphere of influence.

"We aren't trading in our friendship with Russia," he said at the start of the talks Monday.

Putin also praised Belarus' Sept. 28 parliamentary elections as meeting high standards, in contrast to the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe, which described the vote as falling short of democratic standards.

Source:

http://www.iht.com/articles/ap/2008/10/06/europe/EU-Belarus-Russia.php

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