Mikhail Marynich: “New price for Russian gas will be impossible for Belarusians”
- 3.10.2008, 9:11
Russian gas’ price hike up to $200-250 per 1,000 cubic metres next year will deliver a heavy blow on Belarusian economy.
According to the former minister of foreign economic ties and former political prisoner Mikhail Marynich, gas prices are too heavy for Belarus already.
“Today, undoubtedly, any price, and even current price, is getting too heavy. That is why the people would have to tighten belts,” the former minister said in an interview to Deutsche Welle.
At the same time, according to Marynich, Belarusian consumers shouldn’t count on altruism of Russia. “Russia is switching to world market prices itself. That is why Russia won’t create any additional conditions for Belarus”.
And in this situation, according to Mikhail Marynich, Belarus should rebuild its economy to adjust it to market prices for energy resources, and not hope for sudden benevolence of neighbours.
At the same time, an independent economist Ivan Antashkevich believes that gas prices for Belarus still do not depend much on economy, but on politics.
“Everything depends on political decisions of the Kremlin.; on whether they would be able to reach agreement at the Collective Security Treaty Organization session, whether this position fits them or not,” Antashekvich says. However, he supposes that Moscow is not interested in twisting arms to its partners by economic methods. That is why, according to the economist, “in any variant, in any position the price won’t fly too high. And if 200 dollars are meant, it would be the price’s ceiling”.
But even the ceiling price, according to Ivan Antashkevich, won’t cause economic crisis. “The economy is not completely ready for world prices for energy resource. However, I do not think that under present conditions this system does not have reserves for tighten belts, even if the gas price would be $140 or even $200”.
As we have infirmed, the Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary Ambassador of Russia to Belarus Alexander Surikov does not exclude that the price for Russian gas for Belarus in 2009 could make about $250 per 1,000 cubic metres.
“If we estimate it in the rough according to the formula, gas price for Belarus would be about $250 per 1 thousand cubic metres,” A. Surikov said to the agency Interfax-Zapad in Minsk.