Belarus Pays Debts To Gazprom

Gazprom threatened to limit gas deliveries to Belarus earlier this month if the bill went unpaid.

Belarus made a first $190 million payment on its debt for Russian natural gas on August 3.

Belarusian First Deputy Prime Minister Uladzimir Syamashka told journalists today that Belarus is now going to pay for Russian gas deliveries in full and in a timely manner. "It will be difficult for us. But the honor, dignity, and reputation of our country should be above all," he noted.

The dispute over the unpaid bill was watched closely by the West, as pipelines in Belarus serve as a key transit route for Russian oil and gas shipments to Europe.

(AP, ITAR-TASS)

Politics In Belarus

Demonstrators in Minsk on March 25 (RFE/RL) 

WHAT HAPPENED? Belarus scholar Vitali Silitski and RFE/RL Belarus analyst Jan Maksymiuk took a look a how Belarus has changed since mass demonstrations in Minsk in March 2006 failed to produce meaningful change in that country.

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