Lukashenko promises to hit Russian gas with Russian atom
President of Belarus Alexander Lukashenko wants to significantly reduce the consumption of Russian gas by using electricity that will be produced by the Belarusian nuclear power plant, built according to a Russian project with the help of Russian specialists using Russian loans.
He stated this today at a meeting with workers of the Horizon plant, a PolitNavigator correspondent reports.
“We have a whole program. We already prohibit the construction of houses using natural gas. We will install your heaters in some houses. And we are already starting to produce our own electric cars. I have instructed Belarusneft to build electric gas stations. People started buying electric cars, it's very profitable. Belarus is the center of Europe. Germany and the UK have already set a deadline for when cars with internal combustion engines will disappear from the streets. We have a chance to do this earlier,” says Lukashenko.
He plans to build another nuclear power plant in the east of the country in order to “get rid of the monopolist.”
“We would also like to build a second power plant. We ourselves need cheap electricity. We will commission the station - 5 billion cubic meters of gas out of the 22 that we buy will not need to be purchased. This is already great independence. Fuel is loaded for 5 years and its cost is $150 million. How much did you have to pay for gas? And if we had a second nuclear power plant somewhere in the east, 10 billion cubic meters of gas would be enough for us. This is already greater independence from the monopolist,” Lukashenko said.
His plans also include cryptocurrency mining.
“At 6 thousand the price for Bitcoin it was bad. But now there are more than 30 thousand. With any electricity, you can build these farms and rivet this currency. This issue has already been resolved. There will be electricity,” Lukashenko said.
Let us recall that in November, Rosatom General Director Alexei Likhachev stated that the corporation is ready to build a second nuclear power plant in Belarus if Minsk decides on such construction. At the same time, the company will optimize the cost and reduce the project implementation time.
At the end of December, Gazprom and Belarus agreed on gas prices for 2021 almost at the 2020 level. Regarding oil, Belneftekhim signed a long-term contract for the supply of crude oil with Azerbaijani Socar for the first time in history.
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