Free Republic

Lithuania secretly supports Lukashenko Such a formulation became possible after Lithuanian Prime Minister Algirdas Brazauskas thought it possible to meet with the Byelorussian Social-Democrat presidential hopeful Alexander Kozulin in Vilnius last week. It is not a secret in Lithuania that this hopeless hopeful is just supposed “to split the opposition” and to cut the chances of Lukashenko's key rival Alexander Milinkevich. Now that Milinkevich has just been welcomed in Brussels by the EU foreign ministers and has been proclaimed by the EU as the only alternative to “dictator Lukashenko” as Byelorussian president, such a meeting of an EU prime minister...

KAZAN, January 27 (Itar-Tass) -- The Union of Russia and Belarus will have a common currency starting from January 1, 2008, representatives of the Interbank Currency Council said on Friday. They were received by Tatarstan President Mintimer Shaimiyev. “The agreement signed in 2000 says that the Russian ruble shall become the legal tender in Belarus starting from January 1, 2005, and the Union will have a common currency starting from January 1, 2008,” Belarussian Central Bank Chairman Pyotr Prokopovich said. “Equal terms in the economic and customs affairs are still to be ensured, so the two governments and banks have...

Widening transit of Russia's gas to Europe was in the center of attention at Sunday talks held between Belarus President Alexander Lukashenko and deputy head of Gazprom's management committee Alexander Medvedev, Interfax reported. The highlight of Lukashenko-Medvedev's talks was cooperation between Beltransgaz of Belarus and Russia's Gazprom. The parties agreed to set up a special working group, which would study definite projects to be implemented in the near term. Some of those projects relate to increasing underground storage of gas in Belarus up to 1 billion cubic meters and to extending transit facilities in an effort to widen gas deliveries...

ASTANA, May 18 (Itar-Tass) - Kazakh President Nursultan Nazarbayev said the common economic space might be formed without Ukraine whether it hampers this process. After his talks with Belarussian President Alexander Lukashenko on Wednesday, Nazarbayev said, “If Ukraine’s position hampers the creation of the common economic space we’ll form it without its participation.” He recalled that at the end of the year 2004 the presidents of Russia, Ukraine, Belarus and Kazakhstan had instructed members of the High-Level Group to prepare documents for signing. The 29 documents are designed to create a single customs space. Ukraine comes against signing 15 documents....

KIEV - Some 27 out of 29 high priority documents concerning the creation of the Common Economic Area have been prepared, Ukrainian Deputy Economy Minister Andrey Berezny declared at a meeting of a top level task force for creating the Common Economic Area, which is held in Kiev, Ukraine. Two unprepared documents, an accord on investment activities and the free movement of capital within the Area as well as on strengthening the common principles of activities of natural monopolies, will be ready in November or December 2004. Berezny noted that some 75 out of 85 basic documents concerning the creation...

MOSCOW - There are no problems left in the energy sector between Russia and Belarus, Russian President Vladimir Putin declared at a meeting with Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko held in the resort town of Sochi (Russia), Mayak radio reported. According to Putin, hindrances in the energy sector have been eliminated since agreements in the gas sector have been achieved. The Russian President stressed that Gazprom and Beltransgaz were working out plans of cooperation for 2005. Putin noted that growth in trade between the two countries had been 38 percent over the past 6 months, "which was the result of activities...

MINSK - Authorities in Belarus, accused in the West of stifling independent media, have shut the office of Russian state television after accusing it of exaggerating the size of a rally denouncing President Alexander Lukashenko. The action barring the channel from operating in the ex-Soviet state late on Friday was the latest punitive move against reporters judged to have distorted political activity in the country since Lukashenko came to power a decade ago. "In connection with an improper report on opposition activity, it has been decided to halt the activity in Belarus of the office of VGTRK (Russian state television),"...

MINSK - Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko said on Tuesday that Russia was funding opposition groups in Belarus. At the same time, he noted that it was not the Russian President and the Russian government who were supporting the opposition. “When they bring 180,000 (dollars) from Moscow, half for Marinich and half for Frolov… In my place, would not you be worried that the opposition is funded by Russia, my Russia, brotherly Russia?” Mr. Lukashenko was quoted as saying by the Vremya Novostey newspaper. According to the Belarusian leader, this is “wasted money, vain efforts”. He promised to disclose the sources...

MOSCOW - Russia has cut off the entire natural gas supply to Belarus, including transit deliveries to Western Europe, as the two neighbors continue to battle. The Gazprom gas monopoly, which controls all export pipelines in Russia, announced it had suspended all gas supplies to the impoverished former Soviet republic because Belarus was siphoning off transit gas. "We have decided to halt all gas deliveries to Belarus, including for transit to third countries," Gazprom spokesman Denis said. "Germany and other countries will not be left without gas, we have other pipeline routes," such as Ukraine, he added. It was not...

MOSCOW - A one day suspension of Russian gas supplies to Belarus on February 11 prompted Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko to make another verbal attack against Moscow. According to the Vremya Novostey newspaper, Mr. Lukashenko demanded that Belarus' Beltransgaz be allowed to re-export and produce gas in Russia. He also threatened to break agreements between Russia and Belarus. "Kasyanov said he had suspended some provisions. If they pull out of one agreement, this will lead to Belarus' withdrawal from other agreements. Neither we nor Russia need it," the Belarusian leader said. Russia suspended a provision of the agreement on gas...

MOSCOW - Russian government has approved the agreement on formation of the United Economic Space (UES) and will present it to the head of the state for bringing it out to Duma for ratification. The corresponding resolution was signed by Premier Minister of Russia Mikhail Kasyanov, Izvestia reports. The Agreement on formation of UES was signed on Sept., 19, 2003 in Yalta by presidents of Belarus, Kazakhstan, Russia and Ukraine in the course of CIS heads council meeting. The United Economic Space which will unite the above-mentioned countries can be characterized as “European Union minus unified currency”, according to experts....

MOSCOW - According to the World Bank’s report “Doing Business In 2004: Understanding Regulation”, Russia has not the most favorable business environment. The report provides data on business costs by analyzing specific regulatory norms that help or hamper business investment, labor productivity etc. The report is based on the assessment of existing legislation and norms in the economy of the surveyed countries, the examination of assessments made by lawmakers, members of the private sector, consulting companies and other experts. The survey examines five topics, covering the fundamental aspects of a business life cycle, including starting a business, hiring and firing...

YALTA, Ukraine -- Leaders of former Soviet republics endorsed an ambitious plan Friday aimed at recreating the economic union that collapsed with the breakup of the Soviet Union, a move they stressed was a not a bid to turn back the clock but to pump up the region's sagging economic might. The Commonwealth of Independent States, a loose grouping of 12 former Soviet republics, agreed to move toward the eventual creation of a free trade zone stretching from Central Asia to the edge of the European Union. Leading the march were Russia and three of its neighbors, who signed a...

MOSCOW - On Tuesday, Russian Finance Minister Alexey Kudrin held talks with his Belarusian counterpart Nikolai Korbut and the Chairman of the National Bank of Belarus, Petr Prokopovich. The introduction of the Russian ruble as the only legal tender in Belarus was discussed at the meeting. Mr. Kudrin is convinced that everything is ready for the signing of the agreement, the Kommersant newspaper reports. For their part, Nikolai Korbut and Petr Prokopovich did not argue about organizational issues, but requested that Mr. Kudrin should address the complaints of Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko. The draft agreement was prepared back on August...

MOSCOW - The Russian government has approved a draft agreement on the creation of the single economic space linking Russia, Belarus, Kazakhstan and Ukraine. According to the Government Information Department, a corresponding decree was signed by Russian Prime Minister Mikhail Kasyanov. The draft agreement was submitted to the government by the Russian Economy Ministry; it was coordinated with the Russian Interior Ministry and other concerned federal executive agencies. Preliminary discussions on the agreement were held with Belarus, Kazakhstan and Ukraine. According to the draft agreement, the customs territories of the countries-members of the single economic space will be united. The...

Prime Minister Mikhail Kasyanov on Saturday ordered the government to analyze a proposal by government-controlled Gazprom to stop selling to neighboring Belarus at low Russian prices. Gazprom threatened on Friday to charge Belarus more for gas after the landlocked country refused to set up a joint venture to manage pipelines running through it to Poland and Germany. Analysts said the move was also backed by the Kremlin, increasingly unhappy with the policies of Belarussian President Alexander Lukashenko, who has been criticized in the West for stifling democratic freedoms and violating human rights. They also said Western clients of the world's...

MOSCOW (AP) -- President Vladimir Putin has prodded Belarussan President Alexander Lukashenko to sign quickly a long-discussed agreement to use the Russian ruble as the single currency in Russia and Belarus, the Kremlin said Thursday. In a letter to Lukashenko, excerpts of which were released by the Kremlin, Putin said that the agreement on the single currency had finalized and should be signed in the "nearest future." The letter signaled Russia's growing impatience with Belarus. Russia and Belarus signed a union treaty in 1996 envisaging close political, economic and military ties. The two countries stopped short of creating a single...

MOSCOW - President Vladimir Putin said Monday that a final decision must be made soon on long-standing plans to use the Russian ruble as the single currency in Russia and Belarus, an issue that has raised tension between the Slavic neighbors despite years of calls for closer ties. Putin told Russian Cabinet members that he and Lukashenko would soon set a date for a meeting to discuss the single currency issue. "We have reached the point when it is necessary to make a final decision," Putin said in comments broadcast on state-run Rossiya television. Russia and Belarus signed a union...

MOSCOW (Bloomberg) -- Belarus President Alexander Lukashenko has proposed that Surgutneftegaz, Russia's No. 4 oil producer, buy stakes in Belarus' two largest oil refineries and pay for them with Siberian oil fields, according to an interview with the president posted on NTV television's web site. Lukashenko proposed swapping Belarus' stakes in the Naftan and Mozyr refineries for unspecified oil fields, according to NTV. The offer "was reviewed by the government and the president of your country," Lukashenko said in the interview. Belarus did not receive any bids in May when it offered minority stakes in state-controlled petrochemical companies worth $1.2...

MINSK, Belarus (AP) -- Belarussian President Alexander Lukashenko has decided to put off signing a measure that would allow the ruble to be used in non-cash transactions, a spokesman for the national bank said. Introduction of the ruble for non-cash transactions has been approved by the bank and the government and is seen as a key step in the planned 2005 introduction of the ruble for all uses in the country. The common currency is one element in the plan to form a loose union between Russia and Belarus, a plan that Lukashenko has expressed increasing reservations about. He said...