Russia stepped up its gas tussle with Belarus on Wednesday, saying it had more than halved supplies to its neighbor, but said that gas was flowing smoothly to Europe despite Minsk’s threats to shut down transit pipelines.
On Tuesday, Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko ordered the transit of Russian gas to Europe to be cut in a debt spat with Russia’s gas export monopoly Gazprom, declaring the two nations were facing a fully fledged “gas war.”
“I have two news for you — one good and one bad. Let’s start with a good news — the transit of Russian gas through Belarus is taking place at full volume and Russian gas customers are having no problems with deliveries,” Gazprom’s head Alexei Miller told state television.
“The bad news is that the Belarusian side is not taking any steps to pay the debts for Russian gas supplies and from 10am on June 23, 2010, we are introducing a limit on Russian gas supplies to Belarus by 60 percent,” Miller told reporters.
ACCUSATION
Gazprom accuses Minsk of having amassed a debt of US$192 million for gas deliveries since January. Belarus, for its part, said Gazprom owed it US$260 million for gas transit, but Gazprom said Minsk had blocked payments.
Russia, the world’s largest energy exporter, supplies Europe with 25 percent of gas needs, with four-fifths of that flowing via Ukraine and one-fifth via Belarus.
Ukraine has already promised to ship more Russian gas to Europe to help Moscow plug the potential gap in supplies via Belarus, while analysts have said the impact on consumers should not be big given low gas consumption in Europe at the moment.
SOVIET ECONOMICS
The close ties between Russia and Belarus have been increasingly strained as Lukashenko has sought to use Russia’s eagerness to maintain an ally on its Western flank to persuade Moscow to leave Soviet-style economic subsidies in place.
Relations have also soured since they failed to agree on unified customs rules and Belarus gave refuge to ousted Kyrgyz president Kurmanbek Bakiyev, despite Moscow’s support for the new Kyrgyz leadership.
LOWEST PRICE
Belarus pays the lowest price among Russian gas customers and has bridled at recent increases, saying it should pay less for oil and gas if Russia is serious about close relations.
Previous pricing disputes with Minsk led to oil supply cuts, with Poland and Germany being affected most as they receive large volumes of crude and gas from Russia via Belarus.
A similar standoff with Kiev halted the much larger Russian gas supplies across Ukraine for almost two weeks in January last year, leaving many Europeans without fuel during a cold snap.
AIR SUPPORT: The Ministry of National Defense thanked the US for the delivery, adding that it was an indicator of the White House’s commitment to the Taiwan Relations Act Deputy Minister of National Defense Po Horng-huei (柏鴻輝) and Representative to the US Alexander Yui on Friday attended a delivery ceremony for the first of Taiwan’s long-awaited 66 F-16C/D Block 70 jets at a Lockheed Martin Corp factory in Greenville, South Carolina. “We are so proud to be the global home of the F-16 and to support Taiwan’s air defense capabilities,” US Representative William Timmons wrote on X, alongside a photograph of Taiwanese and US officials at the event. The F-16C/D Block 70 jets Taiwan ordered have the same capabilities as aircraft that had been upgraded to F-16Vs. The batch of Lockheed Martin
GRIDLOCK: The National Fire Agency’s Special Search and Rescue team is on standby to travel to the countries to help out with the rescue effort A powerful earthquake rocked Myanmar and neighboring Thailand yesterday, killing at least three people in Bangkok and burying dozens when a high-rise building under construction collapsed. Footage shared on social media from Myanmar’s second-largest city showed widespread destruction, raising fears that many were trapped under the rubble or killed. The magnitude 7.7 earthquake, with an epicenter near Mandalay in Myanmar, struck at midday and was followed by a strong magnitude 6.4 aftershock. The extent of death, injury and destruction — especially in Myanmar, which is embroiled in a civil war and where information is tightly controlled at the best of times —
Taiwan was ranked the fourth-safest country in the world with a score of 82.9, trailing only Andorra, the United Arab Emirates and Qatar in Numbeo’s Safety Index by Country report. Taiwan’s score improved by 0.1 points compared with last year’s mid-year report, which had Taiwan fourth with a score of 82.8. However, both scores were lower than in last year’s first review, when Taiwan scored 83.3, and are a long way from when Taiwan was named the second-safest country in the world in 2021, scoring 84.8. Taiwan ranked higher than Singapore in ninth with a score of 77.4 and Japan in 10th with
SECURITY RISK: If there is a conflict between China and Taiwan, ‘there would likely be significant consequences to global economic and security interests,’ it said China remains the top military and cyber threat to the US and continues to make progress on capabilities to seize Taiwan, a report by US intelligence agencies said on Tuesday. The report provides an overview of the “collective insights” of top US intelligence agencies about the security threats to the US posed by foreign nations and criminal organizations. In its Annual Threat Assessment, the agencies divided threats facing the US into two broad categories, “nonstate transnational criminals and terrorists” and “major state actors,” with China, Russia, Iran and North Korea named. Of those countries, “China presents the most comprehensive and robust military threat
RSS