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Belarus fully paid for May's gas deliveries, energy ministry says

Belarus has fully paid for Russian natural gas supplied to the country in May, the energy ministry said on June 22, BelaPAN reports.

In an interview with the BelTA government-controlled news agency, Lyudmila Zyankovich, spokesperson for the ministry, said that Belarus had paid May's gas bill in full without waiting for Russia to pay its gas transit fees for that month. The spokesperson did not say at what price Minsk had paid for gas deliveries in May.

Belarus has run up a debt of $192 million to Russian state-controlled monopoly Gazprom by continuing to pay at last year's price of $150 for 1000 cubic meters of gas. Gazprom says that Belarus is to pay $185 for 1000 cubic meters in the second quarter of this year and the price is to be further raised in July.

Gazprom said on Tuesday that Minsk had threatened to start siphoning off natural gas destined for customers westward to make up for the reduction of gas deliveries to the country.