Word: beltransgaz
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...economic relationship between Russia and Belarus has been steadily worsening since 2007, when Russia raised gas prices and demanded that Belarus give up control of gas transit from Russia to Europe - about 20% of Russian gas exports to Europe go through Belarus, and so Russia wants to take over Beltransgaz, the state-run operator of Belarus' gas-pipeline network. (Read "Russia's Gazprom Diplomacy: Turning Off Europe's Heat...
...accept a price hike that more than doubled the cost of natural gas, from $46 to $100 per 1,000 cu m. To save his economy from collapse, Lukashenko caved, after having dug in his heels for years: he also sold 50% of his national gas-pipeline operator Beltransgaz to Gazprom...
Capturing Beltransgaz, Medvedev says, was nothing less than restoring the status quo--the Unified Gas Supply System of Russia (UGSS) that supplied the old Soviet empire. "One of the mistakes that our so-called reformers made was having the UGSS sadistically dismembered," he explains to TIME, sitting back, pin-striped and relaxed, in his techno-style office that dominates the ninth floor of the posh new Gazpromexport headquarters in downtown Moscow. His disdain of the architects of Russia's early market reform is de rigueur for top executives under President Vladimir Putin. Medvedev isn't finished. He says Gazprom wants...
...unfavorable terms" to which Belarus finally agreed include prices only 5% less than Gazprom's initial demand, and more than double that which Belarus has paid since 2005. The country was also forced to sell 50% of its national gas pipeline operator Beltransgaz to the Russian gas company. The concessions will hurt. Lukashenko has propped up the Belarusan economy with Russian fuel and once was tipped to occupy the Kremlin himself. That seemed realistic as he cozied up to an ailing Boris Yeltsin. When Vladimir Putin took Russia's helm, Lukashenko's chances were dashed, and with them, one reason...
...Might these simply be the imaginings of the conspiratorial Slavic mind? Russia merely says that the threatened cutoff is business. Market prices are for all, friend or foe. And for practical reasons, Russia may want to exert full control over Beltransgaz, Belarus' gas distribution network. The cornerstone of Lukashenko's regime has been his ability to run the economy on cheap Russian gas as well as to sell expensive products refined from cheap Russian crude oil to other customers in Europe. If Russia goes ahead with the cutoff, Belarus threatens to hijack gas designated for European customers that...
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