MINSK, 21 June (BelTA) – Belarus plans to pay off its gas debt to Russia within two weeks, First Vice Premier of Belarus Vladimir Semashko told media on 21 June.

In turn, Belarus has requested Russia to pay off a $217 million debt for gas transit.

According to Vladimir Semashko, gas negotiations with Russia are moving in the right direction. He stressed that a certain compromise in negotiations with Gazprom was getting ripe. “First, they threatened to cut gas supplies by 85%. But today the reduction is limited to 15% only. We can live with it and think how we can compensate for it,” said the official.

The First Vice Premier also said that the talks have produced “some protocol that we cannot agree to the way it is. What important is that Russia has admitted it owes $217 million to Belarus for transit”.

“Thus, if Russians pay $217 million to us for transit, we are ready to pay $187 million for gas,” said Vladimir Semashko. He explained that who pays up first was not important.

“We are not trying to hide the fact that Belarus has problems with hard currency. In order to start paying in real time, we should borrow hard currency. We will pay up. Maybe not today but within two weeks we will be able to find the capacity, borrow money and pay up. And they will pay up for transit.” Vladimir Semashko added that Belarus will not quit the talks, “we will insist, we will convince colleagues, seeking a compromise”.

The official reminded that when the sides signed the gas supplies contract in 2006, both of them acted on the assumption that they need prices based on equal profits. It means that Russia’s profit from selling gas to Germany, Poland, and Belarus should the same as the profit from domestic sales, explained Vladimir Semashko. “We understood the view of the Russian government. The problem is that until recently gas sales in Russia had been unprofitable. Gazprom had sold gas in Russia at unprofitable prices, therefore the prices had to be raised. Understanding our colleagues, we agreed to a synchronous increase in prices. It was like that in 2006. Assurances were made and documents were signed. Three years later we see that the trajectory of the Russian government towards the equal profit prices is much lower than the agreed one. We see that Russia will not reach equal profit prices by 1 January 2011. We see official statements made at the level of Russian Federation ministers claiming they plan to reach equal profit prices by 2015”.

“If it is indeed like that, we believe it is a force majeure event. We say we need prices comparable with those in Russia,” concluded Vladimir Semashko.