Moscow adamant to finish integration talks before discussing gas price for Belarus
Russian Deputy Prime Minister Dmitri Kozak said that Russia and Belarus had not yet started discussing gas prices for 2020, as the issue of deeper integration should be resolved first, interfax.ru reports.
According to Kozak, negotiations on integration are already underway. After their completion, it will be clear how the parties will bring together the gas markets and whether a single or a common gas market will be created. Kozak expressed hope that the solution will be worked out in the near future.
In 2018, Belarus purchased gas at a fixed price of $129 per thousand cubic meters. In 2019, the price is $127. The price for 2020 has not yet been determined. Alyaksandr Lukashenka demanded that Belarus be given the opportunity to buy gas at domestic prices — $ 70, just like in the Smolensk region. Russia considers this option possible only on the conditions of closer integration. It is the main idea of the so-called Kremlin ultimatum.
The Kremlin ultimatum or Medvedev’s ultimatum is a statement of the Prime Minister of the Russian Federation pronounced at the meeting of the Council of Ministers of the Union State, according to which Belarus can count on economic subsidies (in particular, through the unified policy of tariffs and prices) only in case of implementation of the Union State agreement of December 8, 1999. In particular, it’s about creating a single emission center, a single customs house, a court and a clearing house.
In response, Alyaksandr Lukashenka said on December 14 that Belarus would never give up its sovereignty. “If they want to divide us into regions and push us into Russia, as Zhirinovsky suggested, it will never happen,” he stressed.
