LETTER FROM MOSCOW: JANUARY 2010

摘要

After three rounds of talks and an exchange of presidential letters, there are few signs yet of a resolution to the dispute between Belarus and Russia over the terms under which Moscow will supply Minsk with crude and gas in 2010. Russia's pipeline monopoly Transneft in early January threatened to cut crude supplies and has said they could be stopped within days as the operator had received no requests from companies to ship crude to Belarusian refineries. Belarus' Belneftekhim, which owns the country's two main refineries, has played down the risk of interruptions, saying new deals for supplies to both refineries were under discussion.