Without the Union State, Russia will not subsidize Belarus with gas
In the context of the “unresolved” issue of building the Union State, it would be a mistake on Moscow’s part to supply gas to Belarus on the same terms as to Smolensk.
Russian President Vladimir Putin stated this during a press conference, a PolitNavigator correspondent reports.
“The decisions that were made at one time regarding the construction of the Union State, the overwhelming majority of them were fundamental decisions, but they were not implemented. It’s just that 90 percent has not been done on each of the issues. Just read what it says there. This is not a secret document. There's almost nothing there. This means that a lot has already been done within the EAEU and in some ways even in the economic sphere; integration within the EAEU is deeper than within the Union State.
That is why Alexander Grigorievich and I decided to return to this and see what additional needs to be done to speed up the process of forming the Union State,” Putin said.
“We have made appropriate decisions on energy resources within the EAEU, where by 2024 we will reach certain decisions on creating common markets in the energy field. Regarding gas and oil issues, well, we sell everything to Belarus duty-free - this is the first thing. Secondly, regarding our sales of energy resources, including gas, to Europe, say, and Belarus. Firstly, we managed to make the lowest prices possible for our foreign partners.
Let me remind you that this is 127 dollars per 1000 cubic meters, we sell to Europe for 200. The profitability from sales to Europe and Belarus for Gazprom is four times different. We now have an average, weighted average price for gas in Russia - 70 - weighted average, 75 - for industry and 62 dollars for the population per 1000 cubic meters. At the same time, the further away from the production sites, the more we subsidize this price. Smolensk belongs to a zone where subsidies are the highest, Smolensk consumes approximately two billion, we sell twenty to Belarus,” said the Russian president.
“If we subsidize the entire Belarusian economy, this means that we, Russia, are subsidizing the entire country, in this case such a primary energy carrier as gas, for the entire country. Well, this question is very, you see, very strange.
That is, Russia must subsidize another country in the same way as the most subsidized region in Russia - Smolensk. That is, it's a little strange. Is this possible or not? Can. But what is needed for this? To do this, we need general rules, types of laws, including in the field of taxation, in the field of subsidy policy, in the field of support from the budgets of various levels of certain industries. This even requires national control and emission bodies. There should be general rules in the field of antimonopoly policy to work, and maybe a common body,” explained the Russian leader.
“This is a huge job and it can only be done and implemented if there is political will and desire on both sides. By the way, we have such a desire.
We are discussing this with our Belarusian partners, we are making significant progress, but what we can achieve is not yet clear. Therefore, it would be a mistake on our part to get ahead of ourselves and start subsidizing for Belarus something that we are not ready to do now, given the unresolved issue of this union building,” Putin emphasized.
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