UPDATE3: Belarus says can do without Russian oil if independence at stake

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MINSK/MOSCOW, Feb 3 (PRIME) -- Belarus can do without Russian oil if its independence is at stake, President Alexander Lukashenko said at a news conference on Friday.

“It is clear that we will manage without Russian oil. It will be very difficult for us. Yaroslav (Romanchuk) will say that it is not feasible, efficient, but freedom, independence – this is very feasible, and this can’t be valued by any money and any figures,” he said, referring to a former presidential candidate.

“This is incomparable, if independence is on one scale and Russian, Iranian, Azeri or the U.S. oil is on the other – this is not comparable. We will find a solution anyway. Russia unfortunately does not understand it.”

Belarusian Deputy Prime Minister Vladimir Semashko will continue talks with Russia over energy prices on Saturday, Lukashenko said.

Belarus has applied to a court over reduced oil supplies from Russia, he said.

He also said he believed that Belarus has the right for a reduction of the Russian gas price due to lower global oil prices.

“Gas is tied to oil. When oil stood at U.S. $120 (per barrel), everything was good. We paid huge money for oil. Correspondingly gas was tied to this oil. And its price was high. And we paid this price. Oil fell to $40, now it is $51 and etc, therefore the price for natural gas also decreased,” Lukashenko said.

The fair price for gas is $83 per 1,000 cubic meters, but Russia refuses to cut it saying that the price of $132, which Belarus currently pays, is already the lowest, he said. In 2016, Belarus paid $107 per 1,000 cubic meters of Russian gas instead of $132, he added.

Lukashenko also said that Belarus lost $15 billion due to unequal prices and conditions in the Eurasian Economic Union (EAEU).

In early 2016, Minsk said that Russian prices for gas are unfair and started paying less for the commodity unilaterally. Moscow cut duty-free oil supplies to Belarus saying there were shortfalls in duty-free oil product shipments to Russia, which Minsk was to carry out in return for the oil. In October 2016, the countries said they reached an agreement, but the dispute is yet to be solved.

The Kremlin said Friday that Russia short received $22.3 billion in 2011–2015 due to duty-free oil supplies to Belarus.

“Duty-free supplies to our Belarusian partners stood at 18–23 million tonnes of oil in 2011–2015. And the Russian budget short received a total of $22.3 billion due to this in the period from 2011 through 2015. All this is nothing but direct and indirect support of our allied Belarusian state. We should not also forget that $22 billion were provided to our Belarusian colleagues in various tranches of loans through the Eurasian stabilization and development fund,” the Kremlin said.

Russia has also provided over $6 billion in loans to Belarus, which was an additional burden on its budget, the Kremlin said. Russia always provided and continues to provide large-scale economic support to Belarus.

Moscow prioritizes continued integration processes with Belarus and is attentive to the development of the Union State with Belarus, Kremlin said.

“Moscow considers it a priority to continue the integration processes. Moscow is very attentive to the further development of the Union State of Russia and Belarus.”

Moscow and Minsk should resolve all disputed issues, including commercial, calmly, by means of business talks, the Kremlin also said.

“Regarding disputable issues that arise, both economic and commercial, we are convinced they should be resolved in a calm manner through business negotiations, and we hope that the set of economic differences, which is currently featured on our agenda, will be resolved in the course of such negotiations,” the statement said.

Moscow is also perplexed over Lukashenko’s proposal to sue Director of Russia’s Federal Service for Veterinary and Phytosanitary Oversight Sergei Dankvert over impeding supplies of Belarusian food products to Russia.

Russian First Deputy Agriculture Minister Dzhambulat Khatuov said the ministry had never received official documents from Belarusian colleagues with complaints about balance of mutual food product supplies.

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