Russia uses gas to reward and castigate

Moscow has begun to reduce its gas supplies to Belarus by up to 85 percent owing to outstanding payments of 150 million euros. At the same time it is threatening to reroute the gas for Western Europe through Ukraine. An unfair game, the left-liberal daily Süddeutsche Zeitung writes: "But because Belarus' agriculture sector is heavily dependent on Russian energy, because the industry is unable to survive without the subsidised energy of its neighbour, and because the backward country remains solvent mainly thanks to an International Monetary Fund credit, Belarus and its little dictator Alexander Lukashenko are no match for the Kremlin. Minsk's offer to pay off the accrued debt with cars instead of dollars elicited only a wolfish grin from Moscow. In Berlin and Brussels the new gas dispute is seen as confirmation of two things: It's time the pipeline under the Baltic was completed and in the long term it will be important to stay on good terms with the Russians not only in energy policy."

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