"Putin has a very serious position. Yes, Alyaksandr Lukashenka has got an opportunity to take a place in the Kremlin, that's why he will go to the oil negotiations. Putin should know who has pretensions to what," Leanid Zaika, head of the Stratehiya think tank, commented to UDF.BY on an information that the heads of Belarus and Russia will be given the complete control over the ongoing oil negotiations.
- Moscow is ready to supply 18 million tons of oil a year, while Minks asks for 23 million tons. Thereupon the oil talks have stalled. The Russian government refused to continue the oil negotiations with Belarusian colleagues and left the problem's decision to the countries' leaders. Why the Russian government refused to continue the negotiations?
- What the young and inexperienced Prime Minister Medvedev can do? Oil and gas are the business of Vladimir Putin. He is the one who allocates resources, he gives coal to the country. By the way, over the past few years we have bought eight times more coal from Russia than before!
I am the advocate of Belarus which does not buy more than 7 million tons of oil. We will have enough oil for domestic use: police will drive their cars while on duty, the KGB will be able to catch spies, and I will have enough gasoline to get by car to the nearest bakery, too.
If refineries in Navapolatsk and Mozyr need more oil, let they buy it! Why did the authorities buy oil from Venezuela and Azerbaijan and thereby laid the extra half billion dollars out of our pockets? Why do everyone keep silence?
Extra 5-6 billion of tons are the money going to the pockets of oligarchs and officials.
- Can we link the termination of the oil talks with Lukashenka's leaking out the information about Putin's injured spine?
Putin has a very serious position. Yes, Alyaksandr Lukashenka has got an opportunity to take a place in the Kremlin, that's why he will go to the oil negotiations. Putin should know who has pretensions to what. Putin and Lukashenka need to have a personal meeting. They can use any occasion for the meeting including "the oil negotiations."
Our oil is a cheap topic compared to what will happen to Russia and the Kremlin...
- It seems that the oil talks is indeed a political issue. What is the thing Lukashenka can interest Putin with in order to get hold of the desired 23 million tons of oil in 2013?
- Everything depends on how much Lukashenka's interests will coincide with expectations of the Russian elite. A struggle for power has already started in the Kremlin. Therefore, all the relations between Belarus and Russia is a political issue.
