Word: lukashenko
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...Putin threw a major fit on state television Monday night. In a vituperative appearance, he accused the neighboring nation of Belarus of ungratefulness and intransigence in the ugly quarrel over energy prices and pipelines. He said that Russia had virtually subsidized the neo-Stalinist regime of Belarus President Alexander Lukashenko over the past five years. Now the Belarussians' illegal tapping of tens of thousands of tons of oil had forced Moscow to shut down the pipeline that runs through Belarus - inconveniencing not just Russian oil companies but their energy-hungry customers farther to the west, including Germany and Poland. [German...
What happens when the little guy plots revenge? Over New Year's Day, tiny Belarus caved in to Russia, its gigantic gas supplier and next-door neighbor, agreeing to a steep rise in prices. On Jan. 3, however, Belarus' neo-Stalinist President Alexander Lukashenko - and formerly a professed ally of Russian President Vladimir Putin - said on television that his government officials should "feel free getting oil supplies at your discretion, wherever you can" at non-extortionist prices. "Oil refineries must be supplied. Otherwise, our chemical/petroleum industries, that account for half of our economy, will stop, which means millions of people...
...Indeed, the rhetoric in Moscow has become bellicose when the subject comes to Belarus. The state-run TV channel has started calling the Lukashenko regime "impulsive and fraudulent," with political commentary depicting Belarus as a virtual enemy state, rather than an erstwhile ally. The fear in Belarus is that Russia is using energy supplies as a cudgel to take over Belarus' economy in order to forcibly reintegrate Belarus into the Russian federation. Indeed, Lukashenko played on those fears at the Orthodox Christmas rites last night at the Minsk Cathedral, delivering a pledge to preserve Belarus' sovereignty. But now with Europe...
...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 to expedite...
...state television returned to scenes of seasonal revelry, Sannikov's guests swapped predictions of how the situation would play out. Most anticipated that Lukashenko will cut subsidies that have kept Belarus' decaying industries and Soviet-style collective farms afloat. Vladimir Khalip, a Belarusan writer and documentary filmmaker, didn't think this would be enough to save the regime. "Now, its collapse is inevitable, come May or June," he said. Such forecasts have proved wrong in the past, but on one point there was consensus: there wasn't much that was happy about this New Year in Belarus