Media: Lukashenko put himself in the deadlock

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Since January 6, Belarus has been illegally pumping out Russian oil from the Druzhba oil pipeline assigned for Western Europe, Transneft (Russia) CEO Semyon Vainshtok announced on January 8.

According to him, only for the last 24 hours, despite actions taken by Transneft, 900 tons of oil were illegally pumped out. “Overall, since January 6, 79,000 tons of oil were illegally pumped out,” he stressed. Belarus, in its turn, commented on suspension of supplies of Russian oil to Europe and Ukraine saying that it was done under instruction of Belneftekhim Concern.

As foreign media suppose, it was Alexander Lukashenko who took himself in a deadlock. The Financial Times-Deutschland stresses that “since he came to power in 1994, the Belarusian president has been announcing unification of the former Soviet republics, however, now, by his steep demands he practically blocked the unification process.”

Experts say that Minsk revenues from processing and re-selling the cheap Russian oil are more than $3.5 billion annually. UPI news agency (USA) called the scheme subsidizing of the Belarusian economy by Russia. And introducing the customs duty for transit of the Russian oil is considered as Lukashenko’s intention to take revenge by any means for raising the gas price.