Russia, Belarus say oil row won’t hit Europe supply

Russia and Belarus promised on Thursday to keep pumping oil to Europe, after Minsk slapped a duty on transit shipments of Russian crude in a trade dispute that has shaken the ex-Soviet states’ strategic alliance.

U.S. State Department spokesman Sean McCormack criticized both sides, saying Belarus was “trying to keep their skim” by using the duty to maintain profit margins that prop up the Lukashenko regime and that Moscow was using energy “as a political lever” to bully its neighbour.
Reuters