Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko on Friday announced that Russia and Belarus have agreed on gas deals and are close to agreeing on oil deals.
Tag: Belarus
November 5, 2011
September 16, 2011
Russia to deploy S-400 air defense systems in joint drills with Belarus
Russia will deploy advanced S-400 air defense systems during joint military exercises with Belarus in September, a spokesman for the Russian Defense Ministry said. The Union Shield 2011 drills will be held in central and southern Russia on September 16-22. The exercises are aimed at improving combat readiness of the Belarus-Russian regional joint force, as [...]
June 30, 2011
No place for emotions in Russia-Belarus relations
Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov has warned that emotions should not interfere with Russia-Belarus relations. Lavrov was speaking as Belarus paid off its $21.16-million debt to Russian energy export monopoly Inter RAO, a day after Moscow cut electricity supplies to the country. “It is in our interests that any emotional outbursts should be removed from [...]
June 30, 2011
Russia Forces Belarus to Pay Power Bill
Cars driving past electricity pylons in Minsk on Wednesday. Inter RAO says it halted power supplies at midnight. Russia cut electricity supplies to Belarus on Wednesday and forced the country, which faces one of the worst economic crises of President Alexander Lukashenko’s 17-year rule, to pay millions of dollars of overdue power bills. Belarus, struggling [...]
June 30, 2011
In Tit-for-Tat, Russia Wants to Blacklist Foreigners
With the United States considering sanctions on Russian officials implicated in the prison death of lawyer Sergei Magnitsky, the Foreign Ministry has turned to the State Duma with a blacklist of its own. But instead of punishing other countries for human rights abuses against their own citizens, the ministry would blacklist foreigners deemed to have violated the rights of Russian citizens. Under a bill submitted to the Duma on Tuesday, blacklisted foreigners [...]
June 30, 2011
Gay Pride Demonstrators Attacked at Rally
Gay Pride Demonstrators Attacked at Rally By Sergey Chernov The St. Petersburg Times Published: June 29, 2011 (Issue # 1663) Dmitry Lovetsky / The Associated Press A hooded man attacks participants of the gay rights rally held near the Bronze Horseman monument on Saturday. The unauthorized Slavic Gay Pride march, which lasted just four minutes, [...]
June 29, 2011
TNK-BP Resists Cuts in Its Exports to Poland, Belarus
TNK-BP is pushing back after its temporary exclusion from the pipeline export route to Poland and cuts in crude volumes it can ship to Belarus, its chief oil trader said Tuesday. TNK-BP clawed back some volumes but the allocations it got for the third quarter remain below previous levels, said Jonathan Kollek, senior vice president for sales, trading and logistics. “After 10 years of working [...]
June 29, 2011
Ex-Spymaster Convicted Of Betraying Chapman
Ex-Spymaster Convicted Of Betraying Chapman ‘Mary, try to take it calmly. I’m leaving … forever,’ Poteyev wrote. By Alexander Bratersky The St. Petersburg Times Published: June 29, 2011 (Issue # 1663) MOSCOW — A senior intelligence official was sentenced in absentia Monday to 25 years in prison for betraying Anna Chapman and the nine other sleeper agents in the United States who [...]
June 29, 2011
Due West: Moscow and Minsk start a cold war, while China waits in the wings
Everything you wanted to know about the Belarusian economy but were afraid to ask is now in the open domain. Belenergo, President Alexander Lukashenko’s state electricity monopoly, cannot pay its Russian counterpart about $20 million it owes for electricity supplies. The Belarusians are saying they have the amount of Belarusian rubles needed for payback, but [...]
June 29, 2011
Cutoff Belarus Vows To Pay Russia Overdue Energy Bills
Belarus’s central bank has pledged that Minsk will pay Russia an outstanding debt for power supplies debt by the end of the day after Moscow cut off power to its junior neighbor earlier in the day. Reuters cites a report in which Interfax quotes an unnamed bank representative as saying, “Today all debt-payment transfers for [...]
June 29, 2011
Belarus ready to pay Russian electricity bill
Belarus is ready to settle its outstanding debt to Russia for electricity supplies, Belarusian Economics Minister Nikolai Snopkov said on Wednesday after Russia cut off the power supply at midnight. Belarus has an outstanding debt of 600 million rubles ($21.16 million). “Any respectable person and any respectable state pays its debts, so we of course [...]
June 29, 2011
With Russia’s Backing, Lagarde Elected to IMF
Finance Minister Christine Lagarde attending a government session at the French parliament in Paris on Tuesday. With Russia’s support, French Finance Minister Christine Lagarde was elected Tuesday as the new managing director of the International Monetary Fund. Lagarde, who was praised by Finance Minister Alexei Kudrin just hours before the vote, will start her five-year [...]
June 29, 2011
Russia cuts off electricity supply to Belarus over debt
Russia cut off electricity supplies to Belarus at midnight on Wednesday until Belarus fully repays its 1.2-billion ruble ($43 million) debt, Russia’s electricity export monopoly Inter RAO said. Russia has prolonged until Tuesday evening the deadline for Belarus to pay off its electricity debt for April and May, threatening to cut off supplies if it [...]
June 29, 2011
Russia Vows To Cut Belarus Power
Russia has threatened to cut electricity supplies to Belarus after Minsk failed to repay a debt due to a severe economic crisis. Anton Nazarov, a spokesman for Russia’s state-controlled Inter RAO UES utility told Russian television that the company had “decided to cut off supplies to Belarus at midnight on June 29″ after Belarus failed [...]