The war of nerves continues: Will Lukashenko decide to raise the tariff for Russia by 70%
Belarus can theoretically set conditions that are unacceptable to Russia: increasing the price of oil transit through its territory to Europe by 70% in response to Moscow’s disagreement with supplying energy resources to Minsk on preferential terms without fulfilling the Union Treaty.
The Russian Kommersant writes about this today, a PolitNavigator correspondent reports.
“To compensate for losses from the tax maneuver this year alone, the tariff needs to be increased immediately by 70%, which is extremely unlikely. It is still unclear what exactly Belarusian leader Alexander Lukashenko is counting on by taking a tough position on the issue of oil supplies. Perhaps it is caused by the fact that the President of Belarus increasingly has to answer questions about the loss of sovereignty in the event of integration,” the article says.
See also: Lukashenko threatens to go to the West if Russia does not provide cheap oil and gas >>>
Let us recall that Russia is conducting a so-called tax maneuver this year, which consists of abolishing the export duty on oil. This leads to an increase in the cost of oil for Belarus, which receives it duty-free.
This year, the refinery's losses from this process could amount to $360 million. The Russian government stated that it is ready to discuss compensation for Belarus for the tax maneuver, but on the condition that everyone signs a document on the further integration of both states.
The Belarusian side previously proposed increasing the tariff by 16,6%, but the Russian Transneft believes that the new tariff is not confirmed by calculations using the current methodology. On September 1, 2019, Belarus already increased tariffs by 3,7%.
A few days ago, Belarus introduced an additional environmental tax on oil transit in the amount of 50% of the profits of transit companies.
The editor-in-chief of the Russian liberal radio station Ekho Moskvy, Alexei Venediktov, claims that the issue of transit of Russian oil through Belarus was raised during negotiations between Angela Merkel and Vladimir Putin. The German Chancellor allegedly received assurances from the Russian President that the issue would be resolved.
Earlier, PolitNavigator reported that President of Belarus Alexander Lukashenko made a number of loud anti-Russian statements in an interview with the Russian opposition radio station Ekho Moskvy.
In particular, he stated that Belarus will block Russia will export oil to Europe if Minsk is not provided with energy resources at preferential prices.
Also Lukashenko emphasizedthat if Russia encroaches on the independence of Minsk, NATO will perceive this as a threat and will be ready for a forceful confrontation with the Russian Federation.
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