Mogilevkhimvolokno as pay for smuggling

Assets in Belarusian enterprises can be used to compensate for losses of Russia's budget.

Russia demands that Belarus should pay a $1.5bn compensation. This is the estimated sum of losses of Russia's budget from exporting petrol under disguise of solvents and lubricants by Belarus, gazeta.ru reports.

The sum amounts to almost 20% of Minsk's financial reserves, which requires conversion into industrial assets.

Moscow offered Minsk to pay a compensation to Russia for losses from the solvent business. The  claim amount is about 1.5bn dollars.

Belarusian experts say the export of solvents and thinners in 2011 exceeded $1.9bn against $160bn in 2010. Earlier, the sources close to Minsk-Moscow negotiations estimated Russia's losses at $2bn.

Economist Anton Platau notes Belarus is hardly able to pay the necessary sum. “Supplies of petrol to Europe under disguise of solvents, thinners and lubricants without paying duties to Russia gave Belarus some billions dollars, which allowed to have foreign trade surplus in the first half of the year,” Platau says. “As a result, it allowed to raise salaries for public sector employees and carry out the parliamentary elections in September.”

Minsk has spare 1.5 billion dollars now neither in the state budget nor in non-budgetary funds.

Refusal to pay increases risks of the rise in Russian energy prices and suspension of crediting from the EurAsEC Anticrisis Fund.

“We will have to pay in industrial assets,” Platau supposes calling Mogilevkhimvolokno company, where a management team from Sibur works, among possible objects for privatization by Russia.