Russia agreed to all Belarusian proposals regarding oil supplies. Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko stated this today, a PolitNavigator correspondent reports.
“In general, as I understand it, the Russians have fully accepted our proposals for oil supplies. The main thing is that the Russian side will agree to our proposals at the end of the first quarter. It doesn’t matter for what reasons: we see the situation on the oil market,” Lukashenko said.
According to him, proposals from Russia arrived three days ago. Belarus expects to finally load its oil refineries at full capacity - not only supplying the domestic market, but also export supplies was discussed (until now, refineries were at half capacity).
At the same time, neither the Belarusian President nor the head of the Belneftekhim concern Andrei Rybakov named the price of supplies.
Lukashenko is already raising the question of revising the gas agreement. “We understand that gas is tied to oil. Oil prices are falling, which means gas prices should be lower,” Lukashenko said.
In early February, as a result of negotiations between the presidents of Russia and Belarus, an agreement was concluded to maintain gas prices at last year’s level – $127 per thousand cubic meters. And this was considered a concession, since Lukashenko never signed documents on the integration of the two countries.
Whether Lukashenko really defeated the Kremlin can only be understood after confirmation from Moscow. The Belarusian president is known for the fact that he sometimes likes to make things up. Either about the car given to him personally by Ilan Musk, or about Belarusian medium-range missiles.
Recently, the Russian authorities were forced to refute Lukashenko’s statements that the real coronavirus incidence statistics in Russia are significantly higher than the official ones.
And today the Russian Association of Retail Trade Companies (AKORT) refuted Alexander Lukashenko, who said that Russian retailers asked him for food products because of the current shortage.