Gazprom says talks with Belarus fail

NF Reporter · 12-26-2006, 09:58 AM

Reuters - Russia said on Tuesday a new round of talks with Belarus on gas prices for 2007 had yielded no results, but Europe was safe as Moscow had stockpiled enough gas in Germany and Austria to guard against possible cuts.

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waltky · 12-10-2007, 12:20 AM

Hugo gonna sell to Belarus...

Venezuela's Chavez promises oil for Belarus
Monday, December 10, 2007 - President Hugo Chavez promised to supply the oil needs of Belarus for years to come Saturday, while the former Soviet republic's leader agreed to help Venezuela beef up its military.

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As President Alexander Lukashenko concluded his first visit to Venezuela, Chavez said both he and his counterpart are wrongly labeled "dictators" by Washington and their critics. "The international media dictatorship ... calls him 'Europe's last dictator,' and me the last dictator of Latin America. Here we are, the last dictators. But it's written in the Bible: the last will be first," Chavez said, laughing. "They demonize us ... (because) we're leading a process of liberating our nations, uniting our nations."

Venezuela and Belarus share similarly hostile stances toward Washington. The U.S. government labels the leftist Chavez a threat to Latin America's stability and calls Belarus an "outpost of tyranny," accusing Lukashenko of stifling dissent and free speech.

Chavez presented Lukashenko with a medal, and they signed an agreement pledging military cooperation. They did not discuss specifics publicly, but Chavez has expressed interest in buying an air defense system from Belarus equipped with radar and anti-aircraft missiles. The two governments also signed an accord establishing a joint venture to exploit oil and natural gas in the South American country.

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Re-organizing the old Soviet Union?

Putin Eyes Reunification With Belarus
Dec. 10, 2007 - Union Could Enable Russia's Popular President To Retain Power By Creating A New Constitution

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President Vladimir Putin may be about to unveil a political bombshell: a full-scale union between Russia and its smaller Slavic neighbor Belarus. It's a plan that not only would expand Russia's territory and national prestige; it could also give Mr. Putin, required to step down when his second term ends in March, a new lease on power by producing a fresh Constitution.

Citing Kremlin sources, the independent Ekho Moskvy radio station reported Friday that Putin and Belarussian President Alexander Lukashenko will sign a union treaty during Putin's two-day visit to Minsk this week. A Kremlin spokesman said the report came "from the realm of speculative fantasies," though he did not deny that the long-debated Russia-Belarus union might be on the verge of realization.

The purported deal, to be endorsed by popular referendum, would involve a full merger of the two countries, including common currency, legal system, armed forces, and state symbols. Putin would be likely to become the new superstate's provisional leader and Mr. Lukashenko its speaker of parliament, the station said. Belarus's beleaguered opposition called on Belarussians to the streets this week to protest "imminent annexation" by Russia.

"It has become clear that Russia will use economic levers [such as high energy prices] to annex Belarus, or at least compel it to join a 'union state,'" Viktar Ivashkevich, deputy head of the Belarussian Popular Front coalition, said in a statement. Belarus is Russia's closest ally among ex-Soviet states and has long been dependent on Moscow for energy supplies, security assistance, and economic subsidies. The two countries have had a partial union since 1996, when Lukashenko championed the idea. Since the youthful and popular Putin took power from a weak Boris Yeltsin, however, Lukashenko has cooled to the idea.

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waltky · 09-09-2008, 04:58 AM

Russia tryin' to establish an energy monopoly...

Russia 'wants energy market control'
September 08, 2008 - RUSSIA aims to corner energy markets, a senior US official said today as Vice President Dick Cheney arrived in Italy during a tour that has taken in eastern European states which are important transit routes.

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"The fact is Russia has worked hard to try to corner the markets, so to speak, and is working to foreclose options to transit for those energy products across Russia," the official said, speaking on condition of anonymity.

"They want everything to come out through Russia and a lot of us think it's more important that there be diverse means of gaining access to those resources. No one country ought to be able to totally dominate those deliveries."

Mr Cheney has visited Azerbaijan, Georgia and Ukraine to show support for the former Soviet states after the conflict between Georgia and Russia over the South Ossetia region which the vice president called Moscow's "brutality against a neighbour".

Europe and the US are concerned about transit routes for oil and gas through eastern European countries which are seen as alternatives to Russian supplies.

Russia 'wants energy market control' | NEWS.com.au