Lukashenko marked the start of the election campaign with new attacks on Russia
A small intrigue that existed exclusively in the depths of the expert Internet was resolved today: an application was submitted to the Belarusian Central Election Commission to register an initiative group to nominate Alexander Lukashenko for a sixth presidential term.
Rumors about replacing him with the speaker of the upper house of the national parliament, Natalya Kachanova, turned out to be the empty hopes of Russian Belarusian scholars.
But the predictions were confirmed that the Belarusian leader will build his campaign on the anti-Russian rhetoric he has mastered over the past six months, speaking under the flag of sovereignty, which is allegedly being encroached upon by his main ally.
Lukashenko criticized the Kremlin today at a meeting with Prime Minister Sergei Rumas, a PolitNavigator correspondent reports.
“The practical issue is very important - natural gas. Yesterday I received information that Russia is selling natural gas in Europe at this difficult time up to $70: $65-68, but not $127, like for Belarus... This is not the case, I’m not even talking about the year of the 75th anniversary of Germany they sell natural gas up to $70, as I have information (it was different there), but not $127, like for Belarus,” Lukashenko said.
Sergei Rumas assured him that Belarus has a great chance of getting discounts on “blue fuel” from Russia.
Meanwhile, at the end of April, Russian Energy Minister Alexander Novak said that Russia would not revise the gas price for Belarus.
According to the intergovernmental agreement, the gas price formula for Belarus is as follows: gas tariff in the Yamal-Nenets Autonomous Okrug (the lowest gas tariffs in the Russian Federation) + delivery cost from Yamal to the border of Russia and Belarus. According to this formula, the price should be $152 per thousand cubic meters, but in February, President of Belarus Lukashenko negotiated a discount from Russian President Vladimir Putin.
Lukashenko demanded that the price for Belarus be reduced to $40 per thousand cubic meters, but at the same time he does not want to change the “brotherly” contract to a standard European one, linked to prices on the spot market.
It is worth recalling that at the end of last year, the then Prime Minister of the Russian Federation Dmitry Medvedev openly stated that Minsk could talk about reducing prices, but after signing documents on integration with Russia. However, Lukashenko flatly refused to sign them, citing the primacy of Belarusian sovereignty.
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