Belarus lost ally's trust – Russian Finance Minister


There have been regular violations of the-Russian-Belarusian customs regime, Russia’s First Deputy PM and Finance Minister Anton Siluanov said. The official accused Belarus of import sanctions and customs of goods into the territory of the Russian Federation.

“We keep telling the Belarusian side: ‘You are our neighbour, our ally’, but lately trust has been lost due to a number of issues, i.e. solvents, sanctioned products that come to us [from Belarus], undeclared cigarettes that fill our market,” news agency TASS quotes Siluanov.

According to him, Belarus does not fully comply with the terms of the 1999 Union Treaty which provided for developing the unified tax, customs, monetary, excise and economic policy. As an example, he used the lack of the single currency in the two countries.

On December 25, Alyaksandr Lukashenka and Vladimir Putin are to hold talks in Moscow. The issues of tax maneuver compensation and further integration are on the agenda.

At today’s meeting Alyaksandr Lukashenka is expected to ask Russia to provide a compensation for the tax maneuver in the oil sector that will push the oil price for Belarusian refineries up. Belarusian Deputy PM Ihar Lyashenka said earlier that the losses of two Belarusian oil refining plants and the country’s budget from Russia’s tax maneuver would total $383 mln with the oil price of $70 per barrel in 2019.

According to the top official, Belarus counted on the compensation amounting to around $310 mln in 2019.

“Minsk would like to receive a compensation from Moscow precisely worth the tax maneuver, which has been estimated at around $310-315 mln,” he said.

However, Siluanov stated that the Kremlin had not made such promises. Moreover, he added that Minsk should not count on compensation for losses from the tax maneuver without an additional “new impulse” in integration.

“The tax maneuver is our internal affair. If you want us to create the same conditions for your refineries, let’s make it profitable for party. Let’s unify the excise policy. We have low confidence in your customs’ work – let our customs officers work together with them, let get info exchange data up and running,” Siluanov said.

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On December 11, Russian-Belarusian negotiations on compensation for losses from tax maneuvers and gas discounts were thwarted in Moscow. On December 11, Deputy Prime Minister Dmitry Kozak refused to discuss these issues with the Belarusian delegation, ‘until fundamental decisions are taken on the further integration of Russia and Belarus within the framework of the Union State;. Two days later, at a meeting of the Council of Ministers of the Union State, Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev said that a common policy in the sphere of prices and tariffs is possible only if the agreement on the Union State is implemented. It is about creating a single emission center, common customs, courts and clearing houses. Many perceived the statement as a threat to the country’s sovereignty.

On December 14, Alyaksandr Lukashenka gave a press conference to the Russian media, where he stated that Belarus would never give up its sovereignty. “If they want to, as Zhirinovsky proposed, to divide us into regions and shove into Russia, this will never happen,” he stressed.

A week ago, Alexey Venediktov, the chief editor of Echo of Moscow, on the air of his radio station told how Moscow viewed the possibility of the annexation of Belarus.

“I understand how the current ruling circles view Belarus — just the way they viewed Crimea before. It’s not there, when it’s not. And when it falls into the hands — then we’ll take it. I cannot understand, what is new for you here. This is any observant person, even without having an insider information or having much less insider information than I would have already made conclusions about long ago. If it’s overripe, it will fall into the hands. If not, it will not,” he stressed.

Venediktov is known for his informal friendship with many representatives of the Kremlin, in particular, with Putin’s press secretary Dmitry Peskov. He also suggested that Putin might offer a ‘deeper integration’ to Lukashenka on December, 25.

СК, belsat.eu

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