Finance ministry borrows money from national reserve to pay to Gazprom

Belarus has three days remaining to pay off its gas debt to Gazprom. The deadline is at 1000 on Friday, August 10, but it still unclear where this country is to find the money in order to pay the outstanding bill of $266 million. It is also yet to be determined where Belarus “borrowed” $190 million which Gazprom received on August 3.

The European Radio for Belarus called Beltransgaz to get information where the money came from for the first installment, but no clear answer followed. Beltransgaz would not reveal either when Gazprom was to receive the outstanding payment.

Meanwhile, Piotr Prakapovich, Chairman of the Belarus’s National Bank, promised in an interview with the ONT television on August 6 that Gazprom would have received its money by the end of this week. He also stressed that the country’s “gold and currency reserves would be reduced” because of payments to Gazprom. Mr Prakapovich noted that the measure being put in place by the government and the National Bank “would make the reserves refilled within the next month and that as of September 1, they would not be less than as of August 1”.

Mikhail Zhuravovich, the National Bank spokesman, threw some light on what “reserve” Alexander Lukashenka talked about when promising the money to Gazprom.

“All the issues associated with the payments for the Russian gas debt are dealt with by the government, not the National Bank. The Finance Ministry is directly involved. The gold and currency reserves are formed from many components, including the payments from the Finance Ministry, which can take them and refill them anytime,” Mr Zhuravovich said.

Thus, it is likely that part of the gold reserves controlled by the Finance Ministry was used to make the first payment.

Apart from Belarus clearing off its gas bills for the first six months of the year, Gazprom wants this country to start paying for the supplies in July at a new price of $100 per 1000 cubic meters, according to the deal. According to Sergei Kupriyanov, Gazprom spokesman, no additional conditions or time frameworks have been agreed.

“We expect all the bills to be paid in full by Friday”, he said.

When asked whether Gazprom wants to increase its shares in the Belarusian enterprises as a guarantee for future payments, Mr Kupriyanov responded very clearly that no such negotiations were in progress.

“We have a share in the refinery in Mozyr through Gazpromneft. But Beltransgaz is the main thing for us,” he said.

Photo: Belta