Belarus Escalates Dispute with Russia over Gas

The president of Belarus ordered a halt to the transit of Russian natural gas to Europe on Tuesday, escalating an energy conflict with Moscow.

Belarus' President Alexander Lukashenko said on Tuesday he had ordered a halt to the transit of Russian natural gas to Europe after Russia cut gas suppliers to its neighbour over its debts.

"I have ordered my government to stop transit through Belarus as long as Gazprom (Russia's state-controlled gas giant) does not pay for the transit," Mr. Lukashenka said in a meeting with Russia's foreign minister, Sergey V. Lavrov.

He also admitted Belarus owes about $192 million for previous shipments of natural gas from Russia, but argued his country was able to pay back the debt if only given two weeks' grace period.

Meanwhile, he expressed his dissatisfaction with Russian officials, saying they ignored Belarus' complex economic situation and some of their talks depreciated Belarus.

Failed to reach an agreement on debts problem, Russia started cutting gas supplies by 15 percent, or 7 million cubic meters on Monday. Gazprom said one day later the company had deepened cuts in its gas suppliers by 30 percent, escalating the energy conflict into what Mr. Lukashenko called a "gas war."

Gazprom also warned that it would eventually cut deliveries by 85 percent if the debt wasn't repaid.

About a fifth of Europe's supplies of Russian gas is pumped through Belarus. The halt of transit may affect European gas importers.