Russia's position on gas supplies to Belarus is unacceptable - A. Lukashenko

June 18, Shklov District / Vladimir Vasilkov - BELTA /. Russia's position on gas supplies to Belarus is unacceptable. Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko told reporters today, according to a BELTA correspondent. "You cannot behave like this towards Belarus: lowering gas prices for others or fixing them, while increasing them for us," the head of state said. "Russians and Gazprom will not profit much from this, but they can lose a lot." Alexander Lukashenko noted that when Russian President Dmitry Medvedev asked him to express Belarus's position on the gas issue, the Belarusian leader responded unequivocally: "The country is just emerging from the financial and economic crisis. It is not easy for us now, we need to support production. And an increase in gas prices, of course, will negatively affect the profitability of our enterprises." In addition, the head of the Belarusian state emphasized: "The Belarusian economy today actually works for the Russian economy. We receive components from Russian enterprises today, which employ up to 15 million people. That is, we are, in a sense, still an assembly shop of the Russian Federation." Therefore, according to Alexander Lukashenko, it is impossible to say that gas is being supplied to some strangers, to some other country. The President of Belarus also recalled that the Russian side had reduced the price of natural gas by 30% for Ukraine, and recently there was a question about a possible reduction for Hungary. "There has been a reduction in natural gas prices. Why have they decided to increase our price by 30%?" the Belarusian leader exclaimed indignantly. Alexander Lukashenko added: "It doesn't matter that we had a price difference. After all, for Russia, Belarus and other states are, as they say in Odessa, two big differences. Belarus has a completely different value for Russia. And do not try to push here that we want to live for free! No, we bring great benefit to Russia, from production to defense and other issues." "It was in this context that Dmitry Medvedev's conversation took place. As a result, the President of Russia told me that he was not ready to answer all questions immediately and that he would definitely make a decision within 2-3 days and call me. Well, he 'called' on television - you heard it," the President said. Alexander Lukashenko emphasized: "We will survive. But I consider it unacceptable to behave like this towards an allied people, with whom we rotted together in the trenches. And this is not emotions, although they are also important for us Slavs." Answering a journalist's question about whether the Belarusian side intends to pay for the debt claimed by Russia, the President said: "We are currently negotiating. If we proceed from Russia's point of view, it is a debt. If we proceed from what I said, there is no debt. I think we will reach an agreement. If we agree that it is a debt and it is very difficult for Russia to abandon the previous price, then we will pay, we will find the money." -0-