Belarusian authorities on the swing of economic bargaining

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The Petersburg meeting of the presidents of Russia and Belarus was not only overshadowed by the bloody terrorist attack in the metro of the northern capital, but also went to the second information plan in connection with it. It was reported only that Vladimir Putin and Alexander Lukashenko reached an agreement on all issues. There have been a lot of them lately in Russian-Belarusian relations: disputes over a single customs area, non-payment for gas, short delivery of petroleum products, illegal re-export of goods that fell under sanctions, etc. Agreements, however, have not received practical development. There was a long pause. It was felt throughout that the tension hidden from publicity was continuing in the relations between Moscow and Minsk.

Belarusian authorities on the swing of economic bargaining




Minsk was forced to sign the Customs Code

It was safely discharged only a week after the meeting in St. Petersburg. On April 11, Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko finally signed the Customs Code of the Eurasian Economic Union (EAEU), and everything immediately began to move. Russia transferred to Belarus the promised loan of one billion dollars. Minsk, in turn, paid off its debt to Gazprom in the amount of 726 million dollars for gas consumed in 2016 — 2017. Only after that, the chairman of the Russian government, Dmitry Medvedev, ordered to increase the supply of oil to the Belarusian refineries and implement the full range of economic agreements reached at the St. Petersburg meeting of presidents.

In it, in particular, the price of Russian natural gas was agreed. During 2018 − 2019, Belarus will pay about a thousand cubic meters of gas on the order of 130 dollars, and by 2020, the parties will develop a new payment formula. Until 2024, annual deliveries to Belarus of 24 million tons of oil will remain. A quarter of this volume of Belarusians will be able to re-export, which will annually bring in the budget of the republic about 500 million dollars of additional income.

This story stretches from last year. Then Minsk accused Moscow that the Belarusian economy had lost 15 billion dollars due to Western sanctions against Russia. Lukashenko insisted that under the current conditions Belarus should receive energy resources at Russian domestic prices, and have other preferences. Having been refused their demands, the Belarusian president did not come to a meeting of the Supreme Eurasian Economic Council in December and did not sign the Customs Code.

The partners in the EAEU rightly regarded this demarche of Lukashenko as just another economic bargaining. Kazakhstan economist Magbat Spanov, for example, said in an interview with 365info: “I think this agreement will be signed until the autumn. Both political and economic factors will be included here. ” Spanov called the decline in commodity turnover between the member countries of the Eurasian Union a temporary trend and predicted an increase in the volume of mutual trade in the next two to three years.

As we see, Belarus signed the Customs Code a lot earlier than the forecast of a Kazakhstan economist, although it was already preparing to “beat the shards”. Not only President Lukashenko led to this. That same December, in Moscow at the session of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Union of Belarus and Russia, the head of the House of Representatives of the National Assembly of Belarus, Vladimir Andreichenko, said that the EAEU had become a “political project” and since its launch of 1 in January 2015, it has not made a single “important decision” .

Later, the Prime Minister of Belarus Andrei Kobyakov expressed his portion of criticism of the Eurasian Union at a meeting of the EEU Intergovernmental Council. He questioned the further integration in the economic union, explaining that by rising prices for Russian energy resources. Dmitry Medvedev then advised his colleague not to practice counting, but to remember: “If some countries present here were not part of our union or, imagine, left the union, they would buy gas at European prices now - about 200 dollars per thousand cubic meters. "

Now the disputes have settled. Experts talked that the restoration of trust between Putin and Lukashenko and the positions agreed at the St. Petersburg meeting "are opening a new chapter not only in Belarusian-Russian relations, but also in Eurasian integration."


Path to a dead end?

The good wishes of the expert community exactly three times after the signing of the Customs Code by Belarus broke about the new claims of Alexander Lukashenko expressed by him in Bishkek at a meeting of the Supreme Eurasian Economic Council. The Belarusian president at the Kyrgyz summit spoke of "internal contradictions in the union, which, according to Lukashenko, have long been growing like a snowball."

“We need to introduce a moratorium on the adoption of new legal acts that are discriminatory against partners in the union. The Eurasian Economic Commission should monitor its implementation, ”the Belarus leader set the tasks for the union partners. He demanded that the commission prepare for the next meeting of the High Council a report on how “the obstacles and restrictions in the domestic market” of the Eurasian Union are being removed. Lukashenko expressed the wish that the intergovernmental council pay more attention to this topic.

The new claims of Alexander Lukashenko showed the experts that the conflict between Moscow and Minsk was only suspended, and not finally resolved. Obviously, the Belarusian authorities are launching another round of economic bargaining; what will be his goal this time is also clear: new benefits and preferences for promoting their products.

Meanwhile, “Belarus itself is very much struggling with imports and creates barriers for products from other countries of the Eurasian Union. If Lukashenko demands the abolition of restrictions from the rest of the countries of this union, of course, one should start with liberalization in Belarus, ”believes Belarusian political scientist Maxim Stefanovich.

It should be noted that the main trading partner of Belarus remains Russia. It accounts for almost half of the republic’s foreign trade. The structure of Belarusian imports from Russia is dominated by supplies of oil, natural gas, petroleum products, and electricity. They constitute 53,4% of the value of Russian goods.

Belarus mainly supplies food products and agricultural raw materials to the Russian market (up to 36% of the supply volume). The second largest in interstate trade is engineering products (24% in total exports). In general, the imbalance of the picture breaks the imbalance of trade. The balance of foreign trade is in favor of Russia in 6-7 billion dollars a year. This is a serious problem for the Belarusian economy.

The Russian government knows it and helps its neighbors as far as possible. Somewhere it podkreditovyvaet economy, somewhere sets preferential tariffs on Russian goods, or, for example, with oil - gives you the opportunity to earn extra money on re-export. Over time, the favor of Moscow in Minsk began to be viewed as a kind of absolute partnership and began to demand more and more new preferences.

Hence the misunderstanding, which the presidents tried to resolve in St. Petersburg. As we see, after the summit in Bishkek, economic contradictions once again came to the interstate agenda. They are not yet formulated in detail, but already indicated. President Lukashenko has launched a new bargaining.

What will it lead to? It is good, if to the next compromise in the form of the conclusion of additional contracts or agreements on mutual concessions. Experts do not exclude that Moscow has already accumulated fatigue from the endless demands of Minsk. She can lead Russian-Belarusian relations to a dead end. This hardly corresponds to the moods and expectations of the peoples of both countries ...
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  1. +16
    April 17 2017 15: 22
    Unfortunately, I am a citizen of Belarus, I have to admit that all this is very, very similar to the truth! This is true, but at the same time, the citizens of my country did not live better (despite any loans !!!!!)
    1. +2
      April 17 2017 17: 13
      Quote: Cutter
      Unfortunately, I am a citizen of Belarus, I have to admit that all this is very, very similar to the truth! This is true, but at the same time, the citizens of my country did not live better (despite any loans !!!!!)



      Maybe I'm wrong, but it always seemed to me that the average citizen of Belarus lives no worse, or maybe better than the average Russian. What exactly are you not happy with?
      1. +2
        April 17 2017 17: 27
        Yes, I do not know, I was born in the BSSR, but here is a recent video. Seems like the truth
        There are many similar videos on this channel.
        1. +1
          April 17 2017 17: 50
          A video about a mess on one particular collective farm. One state farm cannot judge a country as a whole.
          1. +5
            April 17 2017 18: 05
            Yes, almost all the same collective farms, with rare exceptions.
            Friends even told me in a small town - all factories go bankrupt, work or not, or pay very little.
            Soon I’ll go to Belarus and take a look.
    2. +9
      April 17 2017 19: 59
      Quote: Cutter
      Unfortunately, I am a citizen of Belarus, I have to admit that all this is very, very similar to the truth! This is true, but at the same time, the citizens of my country did not live better (despite any loans !!!!!)

      yes that's right ... the country a parasite doesn’t live without injections .. the lukanomika collapsed as soon as Russia stopped sponsoring ... I speak in all seriousness of sn on collective farms of 70 levs ... I can’t live completely ... zmagars raise their heads ... Niget Onet shoots off the scum, on the contrary they encourage .... where are we going ... if Russia takes it all by itself, a bald spoon will lead the country to collapse and we will become European Somali with the death penalty ... in principle, it already is ... to the country and suck ... the people will not do anything ... the radiant will drown everything in blood and the hand will not tremble ... a concentration camp in the center of Europe ... a bunch of dives rule a camarilla ball with epasos on a split screen and teach me life ... like if you don’t have enough salary, work on 2 or 3 cattle jobs .... the only normal thing is that you can send all and sundry .. straight to the forehead .. at least the cop at least one of the oblast executive committee .. for according to the law the expression in the protein go hy not a curse but a simple appeal ....
      1. 0
        April 18 2017 20: 07
        Judging by the latest articles on HE, we are no better either.
      2. +1
        April 19 2017 21: 36
        Oh well, my acquaintance from the Tolochinsky district, a cleaner of 120 ue, earns, And what does Lukashenko do, that the Baltics live better, that they live better in the Russian outback, I don’t think that relatives do not say that
    3. +1
      April 17 2017 21: 46
      Is there really no $ 500 salary?
  2. 0
    April 17 2017 15: 37
    About Kazakhstan there was an article I do not find excellent robots.
  3. +6
    April 17 2017 16: 18
    The fact that Lukashenko is always dissatisfied is normal. RUSSIA supports the economy of the whole of Belarus, and not the welfare of the presidential clan. It is very easy to determine where the funds go with which RUSSIA supports RB. This is precisely what annoys Lukashenko. Everything is happening as in Ukraine, where RUSSIA also supported the independent economy * of the fraternal people * totaling more than two hundred billion dollars. In Ukraine, hatred is still due to the fact that local oligarchs had to steal from the budget. The claim to RUSSIA is that RUSSIA funded the whole economy, unlike the * West * and the United States, which financed directly * the politicians * and other * important persons * who carried out the necessary policies for the United States.
  4. +9
    April 17 2017 16: 43
    Tired of this strange education in Belarus. Or let them join as a federal district or bring down leeches. But Luke will love in FIG.
    1. +1
      April 19 2017 21: 39
      Do you personally pay from your pocket?
      Allegarchs from Russia take out 190 billion dollars from the country; block at least these channels, how many colonels Zakharchenko still have that pennies were taken out by truck
  5. +1
    April 17 2017 17: 23
    ..yes everything will be alright !!! we are one people .... ideas are one ... we are brothers and there’s nothing to write about ....
    1. +3
      April 17 2017 17: 54
      Quote: gla172
      ..yes everything will be alright !!! we are one people .... ideas are one ... we are brothers and there’s nothing to write about ....



      Somewhere I already heard it ... Now, I remembered where I heard. In Ukraine, I heard word for word.
      1. 0
        April 17 2017 19: 29
        ... I didn’t say to hear ..... but I wrote to read ..... but I didn’t hear or read Hohelov like that ....
  6. +7
    April 17 2017 17: 40
    Again lard thrown into the abyss! What do we have about them, inordinately, to distribute to non-brothers-ex-brothers? (each, choose your own). ETOGES as in a bottomless barrel! Ukraine was given, the last three, under iron guarantees, and that’s what we get. Already got it! The problems themselves are over the edge, in any field.
  7. +3
    April 17 2017 17: 44
    While the prisoners are pro-Russian and pro-Russian correspondents of IA REGNUM
    Pavel Alimkin, Yuri Pavlovets, Sergey Shiptenko,
    while Russophobia is growing. distancing from the Russian World continues - there can be no faith in the authorities of Belarus! These are not allies, these are cunning and deeply selfish enemies.
  8. +19
    April 17 2017 18: 28
    Quote: Thirteenth
    Quote: Cutter
    Unfortunately, I am a citizen of Belarus, I have to admit that all this is very, very similar to the truth! This is true, but at the same time, the citizens of my country did not live better (despite any loans !!!!!)

    Maybe I'm wrong, but it always seemed to me that the average citizen of Belarus lives no worse, or maybe better than the average Russian. What exactly are you not happy with?

    I do not even know where to start. Pensions are scanty (on the principle that they would not die). I won’t even cite my parents as an example, so that someone would not accuse of bias, but people who have been plowing all their life without stopping, are still forced to work for the 8th dozen (though I help against it!). I will not argue only in one thing over the years, and Minsk and other cities have become much cleaner and more beautiful. There is no work, although they declare that specialists are needed everywhere. Young people, having received an education, cannot find it, but everywhere they need experience. What does a person or state do during a crisis? That's right, SAVES! A lot of events, the holding of which the Russian Federation can afford, BUT NOT RB! The bureaucracy is decent! A year ago, I was looking for a man in the village, drove into a collective farm (30 km. From Minsk). Entourage for a film about collective farms of the 50s (I myself have never seen such a thing) !!!! In general, etc. etc. A spoon of honey: good roads (when they show on TV the roads in the Russian Federation, I understand guys, it’s better with us). So where better, I can’t say. But I always say to our "seniors" that it is better to have an older "paratrooper brother" than a one-year-old "Bendera brother." But you should always behave with an elder respectful, especially when he helps you fraternally, being himself not in the best position !!!
    1. 0
      April 17 2017 18: 42
      At least you have good roads. And in addition to some successes in foreign policy, we have nothing to brag about. A less decent standard of living in big cities - Moscow, St. Petersburg, etc. In the provinces in small towns, salaries are poor. For my city, the average salary in the region of 15 tr, and even less in the field of education. This is despite the fact that prices for food, clothing, rent are not very different from the capital.
    2. +5
      April 17 2017 20: 11
      Quote: Cutter
      I do not even know where to start. Pensions are scanty (on the principle that they would not die)

      the absolute truth ... by Russian standards, a pension of 5 to 9 thousand mainly ...
      Quote: Cutter
      There is no work, although they declare that specialists are needed everywhere

      Moreover, over the past 2 years, reductions have reached enormous proportions, and the contract system allows you to fire any person at any second ...
      Quote: Cutter
      The bureaucracy is decent!

      she rolls over ... conducted gas .... more than a month tormented .... sent from right and left .. country of freaks and thieves ...

      Quote: Cutter
      A spoon of honey: good roads (when they show on TV the roads in the Russian Federation, I understand guys, we have better)

      complete nonsense ... you drive into a squirrel right away the bucket road ... I answer ... you go along the highway from Moscow from Russia EVERYWHERE LIGHT! EVERYWHERE .... just drove into a squirrel immediately darkness ... seriously .. and the road immediately a bucket ... those who ride will not let us lie ... in short we have: sn for $ 100 basically (garbage, geb, oh, oblast executive committees into account), total poverty, miserly pensions so as not to die, apartments fell in price by 70-80%, everything goes for food .. as they say the salary for the pot goes, rents and housing and communal services (in% of the meager and beggarly pay ), the revelry of the zmagars supported by the state and the clique .. just look at it here. buy it .. you’ll get fucked up there without a bottle .. it’s better not to read it ... everyone wants to get the hell out of this fucking sasut, the people, as we were told by the radiant, worthless lazy pigs and cattle ... the wrong people got me ... we’ll live in dugouts .. everyone’s nerves will answer to the limit .. there’s still not much and there will be unpleasant bloodletting .. well, the poor and lawless have nothing to lose .. but what lose that? 100 dollars of salary .... ??? !!! yes you all be damned !!!!!!!!!!!!
      1. 0
        April 18 2017 10: 47
        Yes, do not be upset! They also often say about us that bad people are caught. It is necessary to unite and together - to the great goal of building an aligarchic capitalism.
      2. +2
        April 18 2017 13: 36
        Bug NO: I cursed the "little brothers" just now, because they supplied the solarium and weapons to the ukrofascists, they banned me and I had to apologize, but you're from the White Russians, you can. And I agree with you.
        1. +4
          April 18 2017 13: 39
          thanks Sergey Kranov! it’s just hard for people far from this to explain the truth ... the radiant one will sell everything and the whole country in blood for the sake of power ... and here he supplies the cocks and the solarium and equipment and everything .... litter ...
      3. +1
        April 19 2017 21: 41
        Exactly such comments on here, buy and charter, well, some already wanted a better life, as if it weren’t worse
  9. 0
    April 17 2017 20: 02
    Quote: Thirteenth
    Quote: Cutter
    Unfortunately, I am a citizen of Belarus, I have to admit that all this is very, very similar to the truth! This is true, but at the same time, the citizens of my country did not live better (despite any loans !!!!!)

    Maybe I'm wrong, but it always seemed to me that the average citizen of Belarus lives no worse, or maybe better than the average Russian. What exactly are you not happy with?


    Poor people live there, the average Russian citizen, I have a friend, a Belarusian, often visits relatives in Belarus. But there is order, people live modestly, but calmly.
  10. 0
    April 17 2017 22: 17
    And Let L. and P. on the tatami, let the strongest decide.
    1. +4
      April 18 2017 07: 25
      L. Talks
      1. 0
        April 18 2017 08: 10
        Quote: Kenneth
        L. Talks

        I rarely laugh out loud, but here ...))) One word, but the meaning of the whole article.
  11. +10
    April 17 2017 22: 29
    Quote: Conductor
    Is there really no $ 500 salary?

    No! Not now! He personally received both 700 and 800. But that was a long time ago. Now they declare that the average in Minsk is 650-700 rubles (330-360 dollars). But this is the average in the capital !!! A milkmaid on a simple collective farm-100 c.u.- good! By the way, a year and a half or two ago there was a case on one of the collective farms. The milkmaid, one with three children, after milking took a liter of milk home to the children. Caught, the case was inflated, MINIMUM threatened a fine of 50 cu And s / n she somewhere was 80. "Komsomolskaya Pravda" wrote about this. So here the people were seething!
  12. +9
    April 17 2017 22: 43
    Quote: Conductor
    And Let L. and P. on the tatami, let the strongest decide.

    So P. and so strong. The budget is empty, the neighbor was caught - repeated speeding at 20 km / h during the year ----- 180 cu or deprivation for a year. Fines are all thrashing to the fullest! I give the prices in cu to make it clearer. The neighbor chose a fine! 30 days for payment, no-immediately bailiffs go to work on paper, no-break through bank accounts, deprivation of rights (temporary) until you pay, inventory of property, etc. Something like that!
  13. +1
    April 18 2017 13: 43
    Lukashenko insisted that under the current conditions Belarus should receive energy at domestic Russian prices and have other preferences. Having been denied his demands, the Belarusian president did not attend a meeting of the Supreme Eurasian Economic Council in December and did not sign the Customs Code

    If we are one nation, then the prices should be the same for Belarusians as our domestic ones. Old Man says everything correctly. And our rulers do not want to make friends, but have vassals. And artificially set the nations. And most importantly, I can’t wait for analytical journalism, where there will be a comparison: it’s like that, but here it is, and in the West it’s like that. This will be an analysis, not propaganda propaganda.
    1. +1
      April 18 2017 14: 24
      And we are only one people. We have a union state and not a single one. But as allies, they are often worse than enemies for us.
    2. +1
      April 19 2017 17: 19
      I do not agree with you. There are only one people, but the states of the Far East and the presidents of the Far East. Each state has its own laws, its own cockroaches. There can be no identical gas prices (for example) in 2 states (in the Republic of Belarus it is empty, and the Russian Federation is thick). My conclusion is that you need ONE state, but ....? Old man will not leave, he’ll die out better than you all. Our country also has no reason to give a person with such ambitions. This is where you can easily break your head. Where to go?
  14. 0
    April 19 2017 16: 39
    Russia is forced to support Lukashenko as when another leader comes to power, he will most likely be oriented to the west. And Belarus will follow the path of Ukraine. And then there will be far more losses for us than from the sale of gas at a discount ...
  15. +1
    April 19 2017 17: 04
    Quote: Conductor
    Is there really no $ 500 salary


    There are both 2000 and 3000. My father is a doctor in the state hospital, the salary is 1000+. They live normally with mom. Not everything is good not and not terrible creepy
  16. 0
    April 19 2017 17: 06
    Quote: BugNO
    just drove into the squirrel immediately darkness ... seriously .. and the road immediately a bucket ... who goes will not let lie ...

    I will not let you lie! Roads in Belarus are mostly excellent!

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