Russia halts power supplies to Belarus

• 28.06.2011, 23:05

The threat has been fulfilled. Money was not paid and Russia cut electricity supplies.

On Jun 29, Russian Inter RAO EUS company “has completely cut electricity supplies to Belarus, which failed to make the next payment of 600 million rubles to pay its debt”.

“Payment was not made at 10:00 pm on Tuesday. We confirm that at 00:00 (Moscow time) on June 29, we will halt electricity supplies to Belarus. We expect the payment to be made in the neatest days,” a company representative told RIA Novosti.

On June 9, Inter RAO reduced power supplies to the country due to a debt of 1.5 billion Russian rubles. It was planned to cut supplies on June 22 in case the debt is not paid, but it was later decided to prolong the deadline until June 27.

On June 13, supplies were resumed. On June 15, Belenergo company paid the first tranche of 600 million rubles to pay the debt for March.

Russian deputy prime minister Igor Sechin said Tuesday the power supplies cut was not politically motivated and reflected the interaction between energy companies.

He assured that it would not create problems for the Kaliningrad region and reminded that Kaliningrad thermal power plant 2 had been modernized last year and its capacity had been increased.

Belarus cannot pay the debt because Belenergo cannot buy foreign currency on stack exchange. According to Belenergo representatives, the company has the necessary sum in Belarusian rubles to pay the Russian supplier and the problem is only in converting them into foreign currency.

Inter RAO supplies from 400 to 500 MW to Belarus.