Russia, gas and money

Gas price is extremely impotent for Belarusian economy. Mr. Lukashenko is still a ruler just due to possibility to re-export Russian gas to Western Europe and using this extra money for financing of social programs.

I hope gas price is a question only of money but Russian can also achieve another results.

I see some reasons for gas price talks:

1. Russia shows to G7 countries that they stopped to support Belarusian regime as they don't want to have problems during G8 summit this summer. When the summit will be completed they can forget about higher gas prices for Belarus.

2. Russian showed interest in purchasing Belarusian gas pipe some years ago but Belarusian government don't sell it still. Russia hope to force this purchasing with blackmail. But Lukashenka lose his weak influence on Russia without the pipe.

3. Some days ago Gazprom's representative said this will be a nice idea to make gas payments with a common Russian-Belarusian currency. This is a good chance for Russians to take to take Belarusian economy levers to their hands and even to make a common state.

What do you think about my versions?

tags: gas, price, Russia