Gazprom settles payments with Belarus in rubles
In late 2014, Alyaksandr Lukashenka demanded that US dollars and Euros be used in all payments with Russia.
Since the end of 2014, Belarus has been paying Gazprom in rubles. This was announced by Head of Financial and Economic Department of Gazprom, Andrey Kruglov. Annually, Belarus buys more than 20 billions cubic meters of Russian gas.
As lenta.ru reports, at the end of December 2014, it was announced that Belarus and Russia agreed to fix prices of food supplies to the Russian Federation in foreign currency. According to the Belarusian Deputy Prime Minister Mikhail Rusy, this was done for Belarusian companies to not bear losses.
On December 18, the then head of the Belarusian government, Prime Minister Mikhail Myasnikovich, said that during the year, the official Minsk lost in trading with Russia 739 million dollars. At the same time, Alyaksandr Lukashenka demanded that the Government of Belarus switched to dollars and euros in settlements with Russia - the same way that Belarus pays for energy.
As a result, however, instead of changing all trade to dollars and euros, energy payments were switched into rubles.
Photos - minfin.com.ua
