Gas Negotiations Fail

The Russian Federation insists Belarus should pay the debt in full scope.

Russia and Belarus have not yet worked out a solution for the discrepancies on the debt for the Russian gas.

Russia’s Vice-PM Arkadiy Dvorkovich has said this to the journalists, TASS reports. Herein, the Vice Prime Minister has noted that the position of the Russian side remains unchanged.

“The reasoning stays the same, but the variants of the decision change and we haven’t found the one that suits everyone so far. In any case, we insist on full payment for the last year under the previous formula,” – Dvorkovich has said.

Arkadiy Dvorkovich has also informed that the scope of underpayment by Belarus for the Russian gas supplies makes $550 million.

Since the beginning of 2016, Belarus has been holding negotiations with Russia with regard to the reduction of the gas prices. The authorities insisted on the equal-netback pricing with the export for the Russian gas and wanted to pay $73 for 1 thousand cubic meters instead of $132.

In response to the underpayment of about $300 million for the supplied Russian gas by Belarus, the Russian Federation reduced the supplies of the duty-free oil to Belarus by more than a third.

In the end of 2016, Belarus transferred an advance payment for gas to Russia and expressed hope for the restoration of the oil supplies volumes. However, Vice-PM of the Russian Federation Arkadiy Dvorkovich stated that Russia returned the advance payment and insisted on fulfillment of the gas contract in full scope. Herein, Dvorkovich admitted that solving of the gas issue with Belarus was possible also by judicial procedure, as the case had already been in the court.