Belarus fury at Moscow in gas row
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Lukashenko called Moscow's move "an act of terrorism."
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MINSK, Belarus (AP) -- Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko angrily assailed Russia's move to cut off natural gas supplies to his nation and recalled Belarus' ambassador to Moscow in the worst-ever crisis in relations between the two ex-Soviet neighbors.
"This is an act of terrorism on the highest level, when a country and a people -- not a foreign people, but one in which Russian blood flows in half the population -- is deprived of natural gas," Lukashenko said in comments aired on state television.
Gazprom said Wednesday that it had cut off gas supplies to Belarus because the nation of 10 million had failed to pay for them, and because Beltransgaz, the Belarusian gas pipeline operator that carries Russian gas to Western markets, had started siphoning off the gas intended for Poland and Lithuania. The cutoff could also affect Germany, Russia's biggest gas customer.
Two Russian companies linked with Gazprom also halted shipments to Belarus. According to the Belarusian government, ITERA stopped providing gas last week, with Belarus still owing it $23.5 million. TransNafta cut off gas deliveries Wednesday morning and is waiting to be paid $12.1 million more.
TransNafta restored deliveries on Wednesday afternoon after a new contract was signed, providing gas at the previous price of $46.68 per 1,000 cubic meters until the end of the month. Gazprom resumed shipments as well, the Interfax news agency reported.
Russian companies, which until recently have supplied Belarus with gas at Russia's internal price of $30 per 1,000 cubic meters (35,310 cubic feet), are now urging it to pay a non-subsidized price of about $50.
Lukashenko lashed out at his Russian counterpart, Vladimir Putin, at a Cabinet meeting on Thursday.
"We must conclude the treaty on Putin's terms. If Putin wants, let's collect money from children, medicine, from those who decayed in the ditches during World War II," he said acidly.
He called on the government to review all its treaties with Russia, presumably with an eye to retaliation.
"What, Russia doesn't enjoy privileged conditions in Belarus? In transit, its military bases, airspace and so on?," Lukashenko said in comments aired on state television.
He said he would not give in to what he alleged was Russia's main goal: to transfer ownership of Belarus' gas and oil pipelines, refineries, electricity grid and railroad to Russian companies "for a song." He said he wanted Belarus to receive the same amount in transit fees from Russia as neighboring Ukraine does.
Lukashenko's spokeswoman Natalia Petkevich said that Lukashenko had recalled the Belarusian ambassador to Moscow, Vladimir Grigoriev, for consultations over the decision by Russia's Gazprom gas monopoly to halt gas supplies.
Belarus depends fully on Russia's energy resources, and even a brief halt in supplies could badly hurt the economy, which has retained centralized Soviet-style controls under the rule of Lukashenko, an admirer of the Soviet Union who has been shunned by the West for his authoritarian ways and crackdown on dissent and independent media. The country has only enough gas stored for about 10 days of consumption.
Lukashenko accused Russia of trying to destroy the union treaty signed by him and former Russian President Boris Yeltsin in 1996, which would have merged the two countries. However, he has rejected Putin's scenario of integration under which Belarus would essentially be absorbed by Russia. Moscow, for its part, no longer wants to continue subsidizing the Belarusian economy.
Gazprom said Thursday that it had started supplying gas to Lithuania and Russia's western enclave of Kaliningrad through Latvia. Analysts said it would be a week before European consumers other than Belarus would feel the effects of the cut-off.
Poland's gas monopoly said it faced about a 10 percent shortfall in supplies. Most of Germany's gas imports from Russia are shipped through Ukraine.
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