br23 blog - minsk, belarus

IMHO, Ukrainian-Russian “gas war” is one of the most important and crucial battles in the region, ever since USSR broke up. It also shows what kind of treatment Belarus might face, if Kremlin gets upset with our political line. The problem is that now Belarus is very dependent on cheap Russian gas, and by the way, this explains many successes of our economic model (dubbed Lukanomika). Russians are already addicted to cheap gas, and Lukashenka’s economy is also turning into a drug addict “best supporting role.”

If nothing else, one thing is clear, Russians are using gas prices as a means to wage political control, and it’s still the top news from the region this week because Ukraine-Russia conflict is far from being resolved. “International Herald Tribune” wrote about it again, in today’s issue:

…The only country that will face no immediate price increase will be Belarus, Russia’s small western neighbor, which will continue to pay $47.

When Medvedev was asked why, if Gazprom believed in applying market rules for countries that bought its gas, Ukraine was being charged the most, other countries were being charged less and Belarus was exempt, he replied: “It’s because Gazprom owns the transit pipeline across Belarus.”

Gazprom, however, holds only a 32 percent stake in the pipeline, and President Alexander Lukashenka of Belarus has repeatedly refused to sell Russia a majority stake in that pipeline, which also ships gas to European markets.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, December 27th, 2005 at 2:07 am and is filed under Ukraine. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.