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Lukashenka reveals that Russia may not build nuclear power plant in Belarus

Alyaksandr Lukashenka revealed on Friday that Belarus might abandon plans to have its nuclear power plant project built by Russia and financed with a Russian loan, BelaPAN reports.

The Belarusian leader said that the signing of an interstate agreement on the project had been postponed once again, and that the government did not reject the possibility of the plant being built by a contractor other than Russia’s Atomstroiexport. “We’ll soon decide who will build our nuclear plant,” he said, noting that Belarus has offers in this regard.

Belarus chose Russia on the basis of “what they promised to us,” Mr. Lukashenka noted. “They urgently demanded from us that they build this plant and then they started putting pressure on us for, I believe, purely subjective reasons. You know what the reasons are,” he said.

According to Mr. Lukashenka, he has tasked the government with holding the last round of negotiations with Russia and asking straight whether or not it will build the plant.

Russia wanted Belarus to pay “in fact a double price,” but Minsk refused, saying that there had been an agreement that the price would be “the same as in Russia,” he said, adding that Belarus had agreed to pay the price at which the last nuclear power plant was built in Russia.