(No More Oil For You, Mr. Lukashenko!)
As a former collective farmer Belarusian "President" Aleksandr Lukashenko likes to drink samogonka (self-made vodka). As a former KGB officer Russian President Vladimir Putin likes to drink cognac.
So, both of them are using very different means to resolve Russia-Belarus gas & oil conflict.
Russian oil deliveries to six European countries (Poland, Germany, Hungary, Slovakia, the Czech Republic and Ukraine) via trunk pipeline Druzhba have been disrupted. On Tuesday morning Vice Prime Minister Andrey Kabyakov left for Moscow. As Belarusian Embassy to Moscow informs, the aim of Kabyakov visit is "talks for settling of mutual claims concerning Russia's imposing oil export duty unilaterally and in violation of Belarusian-Russian agreements, and Belarusian duty for oil transported via Belarus".
A day before a Belarusian delegation headed by first deputy minister of economy Uladimir Najdunov arrived to Moscow.
Belarusian Prime Minister Sergei Sidorskiy is expected in the Kremlin on Wednesday this week.
Russian oil flow to Europe through Belarus was cut off on Monday 1/08/2007. Transneft announced the Belarus had been siphoning off oil illegally after Belarus announced it would charge an import duty of US$45 per metric ton of Russian oil shipped to Western Europe in pipelines that cross Belarus.
The Russian side finds this duty illegal and states that Belarus refuses to pipe oil without this duty. The Belarusian Foreign Ministry denied blocking the transit of Russian oil, saying that Belarus was not responsible for a decrease of pressure in the pipeline.
Poland stated that it has oil stock enough for 80 days, Slovakia for 70 days, Hungary for 90 days and Germany for 130 days.
Russia and Belarus have samogonka and cognac stocks for hundreds of years ahead. So they do not really care about the others and each other.
Za zdorovie of Mr. Putin & Mr. Lukashenko!
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