Belarus, Russia entrenched in a bitter energy row

Belarus, feuding over energy with chief ally Russia, on Saturday subpoenaed the head of Moscow’s oil pipeline monopoly Transneft to appear in court over administrative charges of illegal oil transits to third states.

Russia’s Economy Ministry meanwhile handed a note to the Belarussian ambassador to Moscow, urging Minsk to scrap transit fees on Russian crude transits which it said were threatening stable supplies to consumers in Western and Eastern Europe.
Russian Deputy Economy Minister Andrei Sharonov said the government had discussed with the Belarussian ambassador the possibility of talks with an official Belarussian delegation in Moscow on Jan. 9.

He told Russian NTV channel a ‘peaceful scenario’ may be found to scrap oil transit fees.

But, he added, otherwise “we will have to seek adequate measures … to make our Belarussian partners look more seriously at the situation in which they have put Russia and Russian firms having contracts to supply this crude to Eastern and Western Europe”.

Reuters