MOSCOW, Dec 24 (PRIME) – Talking about a currency union is strange as long as Russia sells natural gas to Belarus for U.S. dollars instead of rubles, Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko said on Tuesday during a broadcast of Echo of Moscow radio station.
“We bought and we buy from you for U.S. dollars. You are talking about a unified currency, while I suggest trade for Russian rubles. But no, you want dollars. This is the idea of your currency union…We buy gas from you, and we do that in dollars. Let us buy from you in rubles and move (toward the union) slowly? You say no!” Lukashenko said.
Moscow and Minsk signed an accord on creation of the Union State of Russia and Belarus in 1999, and created 31 sectorial integration roadmaps in 2019. Russian Economic Development Minister Maxim Oreshkin told reporters on December 20 that problems in oil, natural gas, and taxation stop integration of the two countries.
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