Peskov: Minsk Is Free To Look For Any Oil Supply Options

Putin's spokesman said that Russia would not impose its oil on Lukashenka.

Belarus is free to use any alternative oil supply, if it is more profitable than what Russia offers. This was stated by the press secretary of the Russian President Dmitry Peskov, commenting on the words of the Belarusian ruler that Minsk, under the conditions of tax maneuver in the oil sector in the Russian Federation, is forced to look for alternative sources of oil supplies. Peskov stressed that the Kremlin does not consider such statements unfriendly, TASS reports.

"Why are they unfriendly? Belarus is free to use any options, if they are more profitable than what is offered by the Russian Federation, - he said. - In this case, we do not want to resemble a certain country, which imposes its products, which are much more expensive than what is on the market, on the buyers by force.

The Kremlin representative added that Moscow "takes any statement of the head of Belarus quite seriously. "We attentively consider all the statements. In this situation, it's a matter of economic and commercial expediency, and the work continues here. There's nothing more to say about it," - Peskov said.

Peskov did not rule out that in the future the interaction between Moscow and Minsk will be carried out on equal terms, but at the current level of integration between the two countries it concerns commercial issues.

"In this case, of course, we are talking about a commercial issue. Obviously, with the current level of our integration we can't talk about equal conditions for Russian and Belarusian consumers in all respects, the current level of integration does not provide for that," - he said.

At the same time, according to him, "with time, both within the EurAsEC and the "union state," after the integration process goes further, it is already possible to implement some other more advanced regimes". "And now we're talking about commercial issues, the work continues, the negotiations continue," - Peskov said.

This is how he commented on Lukashenka's words that Russia's actions in gas and oil issues are forcing Minsk to seek an alternative. On December 24, the Belarusian dictator mentioned the existing possibility of reverse oil supply through Poland.

Russia and Belarus are negotiating over the purchase of Russian oil. The planned volume of supplies for 2020 is 24 million tons. Among the disagreements between the parties is the tax maneuver in the Russian oil industry. Belarus wants to compensate for losses from the deteriorating conditions of oil trade.

Roughness in relations

The remaining unresolved issues regarding the integration of Russia and Belarus do not indicate a crisis situation, Peskov said. He disagrees with Lukashenka, according to whose assessment, the countries are at a stage of "diverging paths".

"The negotiations, which were held a month earlier in Sochi [by the rulers of Russia and Belarus], and which were held a few days ago in St. Petersburg, in our view, indicate the opposite," - the Kremlin representative said.

According to Peskov, "very significant issues are being discussed, the governments of Russia and Belarus have done titanic work on coordinating the whole package of action plans to advance in terms of integration of the two countries and strengthening of the "union state". "This work is really titanic without exaggeration," - Peskov repeated his assessment.

He stated: "There are still unresolved issues [regarding integration], which, however, does not indicate that we are in some kind of crisis situation".

"It is clear that the contacts will continue, it is clear that the level of integration is now so high and the countries are so closely connected with each other that some roughness, of course, is inevitable and will remain," - Peskov said. And he stressed: "But this does not affect the general background".