Belarus to pay its accumulated debt, Russia to lower gas prices: vice-premier

Belarusian First Vice Premier Vladimir Semashko said Monday his country will pay its accumulated debt to Russia over gas deliveries, in return Russia will significantly lower gas price for Belarus.

"We have to give that money back, but, in exchange we received an immediate substantial reduction of the price of gas as early as this year as well as other support from Russia," Semashko said.

He said Belarus and Russia had "outlined a trajectory for price reductions in the years to come."

On Russian oil supplies, Semashko said that the issue was resolved, and Russia is already beginning to restore oil supplies to Belarus and bring them to the contractual volumes for 2016.

The First Deputy Prime Minister also said that Belarus refused the recent increase in tariffs for the transit of oil and returns it to its previous level.

Moscow and Minsk have been debating about gas and oil supplies for a few months already, with the Belarusian side earlier declaring that 1,000 cubic meters of gas should cost 80, not 132 U.S. dollars, while the Russian side saying that in the first half of 2016 Belarus owed more than 270 million dollars for delivered Russian gas.

In the third quarter of 2016 Moscow also decided to restrict the supply of oil from Russia to Belarus. Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko accused Russia of putting pressure on his country. Endit