Syamashka: “Russians began to press on us”

Russia doesn’t agree to back purchases of Belarusian equipment and demands to pay for gas in full.

Deputy prime minister of Belarus Uladzimir Syamashka told this today to the “house of representatives”.

As concerns to the fact that Russia doesn’t agree to back purchases of Belarusian equipment on a parity basis, the official said:

“Russia doesn’t agree with this; we can state now that there’s a ban on purchasing Belarusian equipment. Though Russian prime minister Vladimir Putin, whom I respect, said all issues were solved and we could work at the Russian market,” Syamashka said.

The first vice premier explained “a 15% preferential markup in favour of Russian manufacturers was lifted.” “It doesn’t cover Belarusian goods today, while it is applied for goods of other countries,” Syamashka said. “Restrictions seem to have been lifted, but it concerns purchases on a common basis,” he noted.

Syamashka added that “according to the data of the last year and this year, 85–90% of automobile, tractor, and agricultural equipment are bought by Russians who use grants of the federal budget given by Rosselkhozbank. “This is 2/3 of the bank rate. That’s why they try to buy Russian equipment first,” the first vice premier said.

“We want to work on a parity basis. You back the Russian and Belarusian equipment in Russia, we back the Russian and Belarusian equipment here,” the first vice premier noted. He added: “Our proposals haven’t been heard yet.”

A hike in gas price was very painful for the Belarusian economy

First vice premier Uladzimir Syamashka said Belarus would pay the $234.1-million debt to Gazprom, caused by a difference between the contracted and annual average prices since August to November 2009.

“They are trying to press on us, a debt to Gazprom was $234.1 million on June 1. We’ll begin to pay it from August and we’ll pay the full price in November,” Syamashka told. He emphasized Belarus would pay the annual average price for the whole period.

Syamashka stated a supplement to the contract with Gazprom, allowing Belarus to pay the annual average price, wasn’t signed. He said “on March 20, Beltransgaz handed in the appropriate contract supplement to Gazprom’s deputy chairman Valery Golubev.” According to Syamashka, the suppelemt was proposed by Belarus after a verbal arrangement between the presidents of Belarus and Russia had been reached on March 19. The sides arranged that Belarus would pay the annual average price in 2009.

“On March 19, the presidents of Russia and Belarus agreed on this in Zavidovo. The number of participants of the talks was small – three experts from the each side were present besides the presidents. Our position was that the hike in price from 127 dollars to 210 dollars in the first quarter of 2009 was very painful for us. We had a little dispute, we said the annual average price was 148 dollars, the Russian side insisted it was 150 dollars, but than we came to terms,” Syamashka said.

He reminded that Russian prime minister Vladimir Putin on May 28 in Minsk confirmed that Russia agreed that Belarus would pay the annual average price.

Commenting on the expected terms of paying the debt to Gazprom taking into account paying the annual average price by Belarus, Syamashka told that they are defined on a basis that the contracted Russian gas price for Belarus was $210.32 per 100 cubic meters in the first quarter of the year, since April 1 the price was $157.74 per 1000 cubic meter, the price is expected to amount to $115 per 1000 cubic meters on July 1. Syamashka noted that the decrease in the contracted price can be explained by pricing formula, pegged to the oil market prices. As oil costs have become to decrease since the middle of 2008, gas price for Belarus is dropping this year due to a time lag in pricing.