China News Agency, Moscow, July 14 According to RIA Novosti news, Russian President Putin and visiting Belarusian President Lukashenko met in St. Petersburg on the 13th. During the meeting, the two sides reached an agreement on the price of Belarusian gas imported from Russia in 2022.
According to TASS News Agency, the Russian Presidential Press Secretary Peskov was quoted as saying that the meeting between the two sides lasted more than five hours.
During the period, the two sides decided that the price of Belarus's imports of Russian natural gas in 2022 will remain unchanged and will remain at the level of 2021.
In addition, since Russia began to implement oil export tax reform in 2019, the price of Belarusian oil imported from Russia has risen.
According to Peskov, for this reason, the two sides also reached an agreement on Russia's loan to Belarus that day.
Peskov said that the Russian and Belarusian presidents also exchanged views on the international situation and regional issues that day.
According to the Interfax news agency, this meeting is the fourth meeting between the presidents of Russia and Belarus this year.
Russia is Belarus’s main exporter of natural gas and oil.
According to the previous agreement between the two parties, Belarus will import Russian natural gas at a price of US$128.5 per thousand cubic meters in 2021.
Beginning in 2019, Russia plans to gradually adjust the current oil export tax to zero between 2024 and increase the oil extraction tax by the same amount to ensure the balance of payments for Russian oil producers and exporters.
The tax reform has had an important impact on Belarus, which imports Russian oil without export tax for many years.
According to Belarus’ estimates, Belarus will lose approximately US$11 billion due to Russia’s oil tax reform.
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