BELARUS NEWS AND ANALYSIS

DATE:

23/11/2006

Facing gas price hike, Belarus threatens to charge Russia more for freight, military

The Associated Press

MINSK, Belarus: President Alexander Lukashenko threatened Thursday to respond to a possible fourfold increase in Russian natural gas price by charging Moscow for its military bases in Belarus and making it pay more for goods shipments between Russia and Europe.

Russia is seeking to hike the price Belarus pays for gas fourfold to US$200 (?155) per 1,000 cubic meters, stoking tension that persists between the neighboring nations despite ties that are closer than most in the former Soviet Union.

"Russia is keeping Belarus on a short leash with oil and gas," Lukashenko said.

He said if Belarus were to charge US$10 (?7.70) per ton of goods traveling across its territory to or from Russia, "that would be a billion dollars - and then there would be no problem with Russian gas prices."

Lukashenko also said that Russia pays nothing for its military installations in Belarus, including two bases, and suggested that could change.

The comments were the latest salvo in the dispute over gas prices. Belarus' Soviet-style economy relies largely on cheap Russian gas and oil, and Lukashenko said Wednesday that next year could be "catastrophically tough" for the nation of 10 million if Russia's monopoly Gazprom makes good on its threat.

Moscow, which has raised prices for several former Soviet republics, has indicated it could compromise if Belarus hands over 50 percent of its pipeline system transporting Russian gas to Western Europe, but Lukashenko is wary of losing control over the pipes.

He called on the government Wednesday to look for alternatives to Russian gas and oil, and Thursday he urged Ukraine - which is struggling with higher Russian rates for gas - to "consolidate efforts with Belarus in talks with Russia."

In Ukraine, Belarus' southern neighbor, Belarusian Deputy Prime Minister Vladimir Semashko said Thursday that Belarus is considering seeking to "lease" at least one electricity-generating reactor at a Ukrainian nuclear power plant.

The approaches toward Ukraine were unusual because ties with Ukraine and its liberal, Western-leaning president have been strained by Lukashenko's persistent accusations against the West and suppression of dissent at home.

Foreign Ministry spokesman Andrei Popov on Thursday criticized a recent European Union message that said Belarusians could benefit from closer EU ties if their government introduces democratic reforms, saying it contained "nothing fundamentally new."

Despite tension over gas deliveries and the future of the close union Belarus and Russia pledged a decade ago to create, Russia has supported the authoritarian Lukashenko as he has prolonged his rule through elections denounced in the west as illegitimate.

Russia and Belarus, which both eye the West with distrust and have watched warily as NATO has expanded to their borders, have close military ties. Belarusian Defense Minister Leonid Maltsev said Thursday that Russia had completed the delivery of an unspecified number of S-300 anti-aircraft missile systems.

An official with a military alliance linking ex-Soviet republics said earlier this month that Russia had delivered four S-300 systems, boasting that neighboring NATO member Poland's acquisition the same week of four American F-16 fighter jets would not affect the security of the alliance's air space.

Source:

http://www.iht.com/articles/ap/2006/11/23/europe/EU_GEN_Belarus_Russia.php