MINSK, May 15 (RIA Novosti) - Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko dismissed suggestions Monday that his country was seeking to maintain friendship with Russia to continue enjoying subsidized energy prices.
Belarus, which supplies trucks and food to Russia, is heavily dependent on Russian oil and natural gas, but it pays $46.7 per 1,000 cubic meters of natural gas, which is close to Russia's domestic tariffs, at a time when Moscow is seeking to establish market prices for its commodities.
At a meeting with Russian presidential envoy Ilya Klebanov, Lukashenko was quick to brush aside claims that the country was exploiting its position - geographically it separates Russia from and its gas supplies to the European Union - to gain advantageous terms.
"We have been reproached for trading friendship for oil and gas. We do not seek that [cheap oil and gas], as we are capable of maintaining cooperation in the areas we have outlined," said Lukashenko, who claims to have overseen an economic miracle in Belarus since he came to power in 1994.
Gazprom is in talks with Belarus' Beltransgaz on a stake in the pipeline company. The energy giant has reportedly failed so far to receive control over the republic's pipeline network, seen as a condition for preserving the price subsidies.
Although a mooted Russia-Belarus union, remains largely on paper, Lukashenko said Belarus was ready to help its neighbor under any circumstances.
"We not only talk about friendship and brotherhood, but want to prove that we are ready to help in a brotherly manner," he said.
Lukashenko has repeatedly said that unlike other former Soviet republics, Belarus has not "betrayed" Russia by seeking integration into Western bodies.
He also said Belarus provided jobs to over five million Russian citizens, and bilateral trade had tripled in the past 10 years via a customs union, another economic project being pursued by Russia and Belarus along with two other former Soviet nations - Ukraine and Kazakhstan.
