Putin and Lukashenko Agree to Retain Gas Prices

In 2020, Belarus will receive Russian gas at a price of $ 127 per 1,000 cubic meters. Moscow also promises to help Minsk with commercial arrangements for oil supply. The Russian-Belarusian summit talks were held on Friday, February 7, in Krasnaya Polyana near Sochi and lasted in different formats for more than 8 hours. According to BelTA agency, the communication between Vladimir Putin and Alexander Lukashenko included one-on-one dialogs at a working breakfast, in an expanded format with part of the Russian delegation, as well as in full. In addition, during the break between the negotiations, Putin and Lukashenko played in the same team in a friendly hockey game. The results of the negotiations were reported to journalists by the deputy head of the presidential administration Dmitry Kozak. According to him, the Russian Federation and Belarus agreed on gas supplies for 2020 on the terms of 2019 - $ 127 per 1000 cubic meters. The agreements apply so far only to 2020. In addition, the Russian government will help achieve commercial agreements on the oil supply to Belarus. According to Kozak, the question of possible discounts is not considered, because it is necessary to introduce state regulation of Russia's oil market for this. "We cannot constantly change the game rules - we will put our oil companies in an odd position," Dmitry Kozak said. For the same reason, he could not give concrete figures regarding future supplies. "It all depends on reaching agreements. We do not regulate volumes and the price of deliveries," the deputy head of the Kremlin administration said. Belarus and Russia planned to adopt a program of in-depth integration within the Union State as far back as 2019, TASS recalls. The governments of the two countries created a working group, which prepared 31 draft field-specific "road maps". As a result of negotiations between the presidents of the two countries in December 2019, it was announced that the final agreements regarding integration would block three groups of issues - in the field of oil, gas and taxes. The Belarusian opposition is opposed to deeper integration with Russia, fearing that this threatens Minsk with the sovereignty loss.