"I think that today's agreements is a personal success of Putin, foreign intelligence services and the FSB. Russia has wisely cut off Belarus from Europe." This opinion was expressed in an interview to UDF.BY by the head of the analytical center "Strategy" Leonid Zaika.
Today, Prime Minister of Russia Vladimir Putin said, that in the first quarter of 2012 Belarus will pay for Russian gas $164 per thousand cubic meters.
"At the average price of about $400 for Europe, Belarus will pay in the first quarter $164 per thousand cubic meters. This is a serious discount, which will allow to keep in the Belarusian economy not less than $2 billion", RIA Novosti quotes Putin.
In addition, the prime minister said that Russia provided Belarus a loan of $10 billion for the construction of the nuclear power plant with a maturity of 15 years.
"Everything that happens in our country since December 2010 is a competent operation on the removal of Belarus from the scope of long-term movement in the West. Lukashenka received the gifts, which firmly bind him to Kremlin", Leonid Zaika told UDF.BY. "Cheap gas is a cheap drug. In fact, the cheap energy doesn't necessitate to restructure production, and in Belarus 75% in the price of goods are material resources and energy. Therefore, the cheapest gas is not the best gift for the Belarusian economy".
The head of "Strategy" also notes that the 10-billion loan for the construction of the nuclear power plant is "a binding loan, most of which will go for paying the bills of Rosatom, for the purchase of equipment".
"Russia has nothing to lose here. Plus, Kremlin wipes the nose of Lithuania, building two nuclear power plants close to its borders: one near Kaliningrad and the other in Astravets. Thus, making a powerful step toward the sale of cheap electricity to the Baltics", Zaika said.
According to him, cheap energy can solve several problems faced by Lukashenka.
"But Putin and Russian specialists in the field of macroeconomics understand well, that Belarus has the not reformed production sphere and primitive economic forms. So, Moscow won't throw money into a pit of the Belarusian economy for a long time. Here the point is to drag Lukashenka more deeply to Russian space, afterwards to eat the rest of the state property and to fully integrate Belarus into a sphere of its influence", the expert said.
