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No progress on gas price for Belarus yet — Russian official

SOCHI, May 30. /TASS/. There is no progress on the question of gas prices for Belarus yet, Deputy Prime Minister Arkady Dvorkovich told journalists on Monday.

"We held a meeting with Deputy Prime Minister of Belarus Vladimir Semashko, there is no progress", he said.

Russian Energy Minister Alexander Novak said earlier that the current price of Russian gas supplies to Belarus totals $132 per 1.000 cubic meters.

According to Novak, Belarusian gas debt to Gazprom for four months of this year exceeded $125 mln. Meanwhile Belarusian Energy Minister Vladimir Potupchik said the country has no debt to Gazprom for the natural gas supplied to the country as payments are in line with the intergovernmental agreement, which the sides read differently.

In early May, Gazprom Transgaz Belarus filed a lawsuit to the International Arbitration Court at the BelCCI (Belarusian Chamber of Commerce and Industry) against the country’s gas providers over their debts on natural gas supplies.

Last year the price of Russian gas for Belarus stood at $142.4 per 1,000 cubic meters. Meanwhile Minsk said there were reasons for reducing the price for gas in 2016. In January, Deputy Prime Minister Arkady Dvorkovich and his Belarusian counterpart Vladimir Semashko held talks but failed to agree on a gas price discount.