Lukashenko defiant on gas prices

Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko expressed confidence yesterday that Moscow will not significantly raise the price his country pays for Russian gas, a defiant statement that followed warnings that the rate could skyrocket.

“I don’t think the Russian leadership will take the step of a serious increase in gas prices,” Lukashenko said, dismissing statements from Russia’s state-controlled gas monopoly Gazprom about potential price hikes as meaningless ”chatter”.

Gazprom has raised prices this year for other former Soviet republics, but has maintained a rock-bottom rate of roughly €47 per 1,000 cubic meters for ally Belarus – a decision widely seen as politically-motivated support for the authoritarian leader who won a third term last month in a vote widely dismissed as undemocratic and fraudulent.

Shortly after the vote, Gazprom officials said Belarus should pay European rates, and a deputy chairman of the company called for at least a threefold increase in the price.