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Belarus with New Threat to Stop Russian Gas
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View of the natural gas pipeline in the suburbs of Belarusian capital Minsk. Photo by EPA/BGNES.
Belarusian president Aleksandr Lukashenko stated Friday that should Gazprom fail to make additional payments to Belarus within the next 24 hours, Belarus is going to stop all transit of Russian carbon fuel through it territory, reports Russian agency Interfax.
Official Gazprom representative Sergey Kupriyanov responded to the ultimatum by stating that under the contract in force Gazprom owes nothing to the Belarussian side.
He added that the two parties had agreed "in principle" on appendices to the 2010 contract that would satisfy the claims of both.
Belarus had announced an earlier ultimatum Thursday, requiring a higher transit fee to be paid by Moscow.
Later Thursday Gazrpom's Kuprianov announced that Gazprom sent to Belarus documents that can formalize the higher transit rates requested by the Belarussian side, but requesting an adequate raise in Belarusian internal wholesale gas prices, of which Gazprom owns a percentage.
As an additional feature of the gas farce, Interfax reports that activists from the Belarusian Youth Republican Union are collecting "humanitarian aid for Gazprom" in downtown Minsk, so that the Russian company can pay its transit fees.
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