Putin in Minsk: many hard points on agenda

Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin arrives in Minsk today to the session of the Council of Ministers of the “union state”. The Russian prime minister is to have a personal meeting with Alyaksandr Lukashenka.

As Aleksandr Surikov, Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary Russia to Belarus, said, the main issues of the bilateral meetings during a visit of Russian government’s head Vladimir Putin to Minsk, will be gas supplies to Belarus, gas prises, and stabilisation loan.

“The main points of the bilateral talks during the visit of the Russian governmental delegation headed by V. Putin will be gas issue and an issue on a loan for balance of payment stabilisation,” the ambassador said.

Surikov noted that programme of the session of the Council of Ministers of the “union state” was determined and approved. “It contains many other issues. They will be discussed at bilateral meetings,” he added.

What concerns gas prises, Surikov noted that gas prise for Belarus would be about USD 250 per 1,000 cu m in 2009.

“Rough calculation shows that gas prise for Belarus is about USD 250 per 1,000 cu m,” the diplomat added.

He reminded that the position of the Russian side concerning the gas talks, “had been determined long ago.” “The four-year contract was signed in December 2006, and the bilateral memorandum as a basis for political actions was signed in December 2007. These two documents determined economic and political component in the bilateral relations,” Surikov noted.

In the same time, Russian service of the RFE/RL said, it was planned to discuss deployment of Russian anti-missile system in Belarus during Putin’s visit to Minsk.

There are no doubts that Putin and Lukashenka will speak about possible recognition of South Ossetia and Abkhazia by Belarus.

From the airport, Putin will go a meeting with Alyaksandr Lukashenka in his residence on Karl Marx Street.

As Interfax has learnt from a source in the Russian government, among the Russian delegation members will be First Deputy Prime Minister Igor Shuvalov, Deputy Prime Minister and Finance Minister Alexei Kudrin, and Energy Minister Sergei Shmatko, Federal Customs Service chief Andrei Belyaninov, and Federal Security Service Director Alexander Bortnikov as well as top managers of almost all large companies.

The source said Federal Security Service Director would be present because “issues on cooperation of Russian and Belarusian secret services, border issues, and a number of customs matters of the bilateral cooperation” would be discussed in the frames of the talks.

The source also noted that no bilateral documents were planned to be signed following the results of the visit.