Belarusians officials call Putin “narrow-minded”

• 17.12.2010, 12:19

Minsk finds impolite statements of the Russian leadership regarding funding Belarus by gas delivering.

As Interfax-Zapad learnt from its source in state administration bodies, Minsk was surprised by the fact that Russia began to calculate whom and how much the country sponsored just after the documents on the Common Economic Areas had been signed.”

The expert fount it “right to notice that the very fact of existence of this reasoning is a very negative signal for outside observers. It damages the image of the newly created organization in the international arena. It’s worth noting that these calculations are based on defective logic reducing everything to absurdity.” “Any sober-minded economist knows that the profit you haven’t received is not the profit of your partner. A real balance of all interests can be calculated only taking into account each and every factor,” the source said.

The expert thinks: “The mentality of Russian self-proclaimed experts in gas and oil sphere is narrow and parochial, but they introduce these ideas to the well-regarded Russian leadership.” He said an example of applying this logic was the situation with gas.

“Belarus buys some 22 billion cubic meters of gas from Russia.

The price for next year will be about $220 per 1,000 cubic meters, but the world gas spot prices are only $150 per 1,000 meters. So, if resorting to the perverted logic of Russian experts, Belarus grants Russia 1.5 billion dollars by buying Russian gas at higher prices,” the source said.

According to Interfax, Russian PM Vladimir Putin said during the televised phone-in Thursday that Russia would lose $3 billion by delivering duty-free gas to Belarus.