Russia resumes gas supplies to Belarus

Russia is resuming gas supplies to Belarus now that it has paid its debt of nearly $200m (€162.2m) for previous shipments, the Kremlin said today.

The Kremlin said that Alexei Miller, the chief of Moscow’s state-controlled natural gas giant Gazprom, has reported to Russian President Dmitry Medvedev that the company has decided to fully resume supplies to Belarus.

Belarus said yesterday that it had paid the debt to Russia, which began cutting off supplies on Monday.

Belarus demanded in turn that Moscow pays what it claims is a $260m (€210.8m) Russian debt for transit of gas to the West.