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.
