Contents tagged with Belarus
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Belarus settles with Russia for gas
Belarus has paid in full an overdue amount of $726.2 million to the Russian company Gazprom for delivery of gas in 2016-2017, as reported in Gazprom’s press release.
It was noted that since the beginning of last year, Belarusian consumers have been underpaying the Russian gas company Gazprom Transgaz Belarus, possibly because the price was not calculated according to the formula stipulated in the contract, but from the gas prices in Europe, which at that time fell drastically. In response, …
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Russia to give Belarus $1 billion loan
Russia will provide Belarus with a loan amounting to $1 billion “on good terms”.
According to Interfax-Zapad, Belarusian Deputy Prime Minister Vladimir Semashko made a statement to this effect in a broadcast of the local TV channel “ONT” on Sunday.
He announced that Belarus is expecting the allocation of the third and fourth tranches of the loan from the Eurasian Fund for Stabilization and Development (EFSD). “The third and fourth tranches, each for $300 million, in total $600 for the year, …
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Lukashenko: Russia is not ready to build a Union with Belarus
Russia is not ready to build a "real" Union State with Belarus. This was stated by the Belarusian President Aleksandr Lukashenko in an interview with television channel MIR.
"We are not ready for this today; and not so much Belarusians, as Russians, Russian leaders," he said.
In his opinion, Russia and Belarus should have earlier held a referendum and established common legislation, including a Constitution, but did not do so "in due time". Instead, they "chose certain issues and began to …
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Ukrainian Defense Ministry concerned over Belarus' and Russia's plan to hold military exercises later this year
The Ministry of Defense of Ukraine is concerned about the impending Russian-Belarusian Armed Forces Zapad-2017 joint military exercise, as stated by the First Deputy Defense Minister of Ukraine, Ivan Rusnak, during a meeting with NATO Deputy Secretary General Rose Gottemoeller.
"The situation in the area of the antiterrorist operation [the Donbas] remains tense. In addition, the strategic exercises of the Russian and Belarusian armed forces Zapad-2017, which will be held this autumn, are cause …
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Russia and Belarus resolve year-long disagreement
Russian President Vladimir Putin said that Russia and Belarus have resolved their gas-related disputes.
The disagreement between Russia and Belarus about gas shipments started in 2016. Minsk said that it had made its own price calculations for the gas and reached the conclusion that its price was roughly twice as high as it should be, arguing that a fair price would be $73 per cubic meter.
“We have found a scheme in which we keep our approaches, but bring together our positions on the cost,” …
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Belarus refuses to pay Russia $700 million gas debt
Belarus will neither acknowledge nor pay a “debt” of $700 million for gas supplies, according to the press secretary of the Prime Minister of Belarus, Vladislav Sychevich.
According to Sychevich, all statements by Russian Minister of Energy Alexander Novak about the existence of such a debt are ineffectual.
"Regarding the statements of the Minister of Energy of the Russian Federation Alexander Novak about the unwillingness of Belarus to repay Russia the so-called debt for gas, Belarus does …
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Russian ambassador names terms for establishing military base in Belarus
Russia cannot place its military base in Belarusian territory because there is no intergovernmental agreement. Alexander Surikov, Russian ambassador to Belarus, made a statement to this effect at a press conference in Minsk, TASS news agency reports.
There is “not yet” any agreement, and no base can be deployed without one, the ambassador added. He noted that “there was never” any question of deploying a military base in Belarus.
When speaking about the upcoming joint military exercises of …
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Lithuanian Foreign Minister threatened Belarus with sanctions if they take new political prisoners
Lithuanian Foreign Minister Linas Linkevičius intimated that Western countries could impose new sanctions against Belarus if political prisoners appear there again. This was his comment on the suppression of protests in Minsk which took place on Saturday, Delfi news portal reports.
According to Linkevičius, such actions would be detrimental to Belarus’s standing in the international community. "This will in fact affect not only internal policy where it might destabilize the situation. It will …
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Chairman of the Ukrainian Parliament: Russia could use Zapad-2017 exercises for direct aggression
The Chairman of the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine, Andriy Parubiy, said that the joint Russian-Belarusian exercises "Zapad-2017" (West-2017), which will be held in the fall of 2017, could be used for direct aggression or sabotage against Ukraine, Ukrinform news agency reports.
"The current ‘West-2017’ military exercises cause concern in Ukraine ... We should not exclude the worst case scenario: the use of exercises to at minimum to discredit Belarus, and at maximum - to carry out direct aggression …
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Belarusian opposition leader Statkevich mysteriously disappeared
Mikola Statkevich, one of the leaders of the Belarusian National Congress or BNK, has disappeared and has not contacted anyone since March 23, his wife, Marina Adamovich told Deutsche Welle.
Statkevich was supposed to be in Minsk near the Academy of Sciences for Freedom Day on Saturday, March 25. As the BNK organizer for the event, he had planned for a procession to start along the main avenue of the Belarusian capital but he never showed up.
"The last time I saw Mikola was on Thursday …