Belarus pledges to pay Russian gas debt

The Belarusian president said his country would pay a £230m (€341m) gas bill to Russia in the next few days, possibly with the help of Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez.

Gazprom said on Wednesday that it would nearly halve the volume of gas Belarus receives if it did not pay the debt. That sparked fears Belarus could siphon gas from pipelines taking 20% of Russia’s gas exports to Europe, and rekindled bitter memories of Gazprom’s past disputes with Ukraine and Belarus.

Alexander Lukashenko’s comments in Minsk suggested another protracted dispute was not likely.

“I gave the order for the money to be taken from our reserves and for the payment to be made,” an angry Lukashenko told a gathering of Belarusian officials. “Let them live in peace.”

Gazprom spokesman Sergei Kuprianov said Lukashenko’s comments “naturally give us hope”. A delegation from Belarus pipeline operator Beltransgas will continue negotiations this morning in Moscow before a 10am deadline (7am Irish time), he said. “This is sufficient time to resolve the question,” he said in televised comments.