Russia tightens noose of debts around Belarus’ neck
- 23.05.2008, 10:56
Russia is ready to discuss a new preferential credit to Belarus to pay for high-priced gas, and to compensate the consequences of price hike offers the “ally” to share tempting assets with Russian investors more actively.
A source in the government of the Russian Federation, which head Vladimir Putin arrives to Minsk on Friday for a meeting of the CIS prime-ministers, has told journalists about that, Reuters informs.
The Belarusian authorities state their desire to review agreement with Russian Gazprom, in order to cancel connection between gas price hike with oil prices growing beyond forecasts.
A new price formula is stipulated by the agreement, but Minks fears that because of continuing oil price growth, gas will become more expensive for Belarus soon. Before Putin’s visit oil prices have broken another record of $135 per barrel. “We understand that they [Belarus] fear price hike. We in the Russian Federation fear price hike too,” told an official in the government.
“It’s a global tendency, and one should get prepared for that,” she added, saying that the issue of “changing the scheme written down in contracts” because of growing world market prices is not on the agenda. “Belarus still has reduced prices even without it”.
At the same time Moscow is ready to discuss gas price with Minsk.
“We are ready to discuss this issue, when it will be brought up by the Belarusian side, certainly”. They should proceed from “unchanging prices envisaged by the contracts which include price formulas”.
After the gas war of 2006-2007 Belarus resigned itself to a step-by-step growth of Russian energy resources’ prices which it bought at a lower price than other countries. However a sudden gas price hike last year caused twofold inflation acceleration in Belarus and economic growth pace deceleration.
At the same time Russia has given its political “ally” billion dollars of preferential credits with dozens years of extension of time, to compensate growing gas expenses. Critics say that by these subsidies the Kremlin supports Lukashenka’s regime, while the West has announced Lukashenka non grata person charging him with human rights violations and clampdown on democracy.
Lukashenka has many times allow oneself to criticize the policy of the Kremlin at the same time make curtseys to the West which doesn’t reciprocate its feeling, while Lukashenka called himself the closed ally of Moscow.
Meanwhile, the status quo in the economy does not completely satiny Moscow.
“Russia acts in a kind of a double role: on the one hand, it has been helping Belarus with finances, preferential prices, credits and so on for a long time, but on the other hand, the structure of the trade shows that in fact we have a raw-exports role for the Republic of Belarus,” the Russian official said.
She informed that the stage of leveling the trade misbalance would be a criterion for Russia to decide whether another “unprecedented credit” would be done to Belarus.
“Belarus can bring up this question, it has the right for that, but preparation of the decision on the credit is a very serious thing… For us it is important for the credit to help our economic integration… It is important for us that these credits were used for reforming the structure of our foreign trade volume”.
As believed by the Russian government, Belarus could be able to overcome all negative results of the price hike, if it decided to expand cooperation with Russia in all spheres.
“Russian companies have their interests in the work in the market of Belarus,” the official said. “Consider trucks and agriculture machine building industry for instance. Both Russia and Belarus have first-class giants in this sphere, and now we are entering the world market as if separately… If we join our efforts in that, we stand a good chance to become a serious player at the world market”.