LIDA, Belarus, April 14 (RIA Novosti) - Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko said Friday that Russia was unlikely to dramatically increase the price of its natural gas supplies to Belarus.
Russian energy giant Gazprom said on Monday it planned to triple the gas price to Belarus from the current level.
Alexander Ryazanov, deputy CEO of Gazprom, said that gas prices for Belarus "should be at least three times higher." The move is expected to tear a hole of around $2 billion in the Belarusian budget.
"I do not think that Russia's officials will take measures to significantly increase the gas price," Lukashenko said. "I have already said that the price will grow, but it must be equal to Russia's domestic price. If the price is not equal, and conditions are correspondingly unequal, what talk can there be of a creating a union?"
Belarusian authorities have repeatedly pointed out that gas prices for Belarus were stipulated in the Union State Treaty signed with Russia, and the agreement on creating equal conditions for economic entities.
According to a contract between Gazprom and Beltransgaz, the Belarusian state-owned gas company whose pipelines carry Russian gas to Europe, this year the Gazprom will deliver 21 billion cu m of gas at $46.68 per 1,000 cu m.
In return, Minsk has promised to assist Gazprom's operations in the republic, notably not to change gas transit tariffs.
Western European buyers of Russian gas now pay an average of $230 per 1,000 cu m.
Lukashenko said the gas price had never been used by Russia as blackmail to push Belarus toward the union state in exchange for gas.
"Nobody has told me 'come on, join Russia,' and there won't ever be such a proposal," he said.
