MOSCOW, January 20. /TASS/. The Belarusian leadership is sure that Moscow and Minsk will overcome their current oil and gas dispute, Belarusian Ambassador to Russia Vladimir Semashko told TASS.
"Unfortunately, there is a bad practice that at the end of the year we sometimes have oil and gas issues, and tensions mount due to this," Semashko said. "But history shows that we have been always able to settle them."
During his latest visit to Russia, Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko said serious progress had been made in negotiations and mutual understanding grew, and next time these problems would be solved. "The president is absolutely convinced about this," the diplomat said.
"I don’t think there is deterioration in relations, some Russian media outlets have exaggerated the well-known differences in the two countries’ approaches," the ambassador said.
Minsk and Moscow have been engaged of late in thorny negotiations on the work of the Belarusian oil processing sector in conditions of Russia’s tax maneuver, which will result in higher crude prices for Belarusian oil refineries.
The tax maneuver in the oil sector implies a reduction of crude export duties and simultaneously raising the mineral extraction tax. The tax maneuver is aimed at reducing the dependence of Russia’s budget on export duties, which drop following global oil price movements.