Belarus negotiators have been left to scurry home without result after talks with Russia over pipeline import duties ended fruitless.
Nobody would really care if it weren’t for the fact that 75% of the oil in question supplies Europe.
Think the U.S. is held hostage by energy dependence?
It’s nothing when to compared to the other side of the pond. No wonder they’re pushing alternative energy so hard.
Business Week: Russia is asking Belarus to pay full import duties on crude oil it refines and transits to the West, abolishing a current 65 percent discount. Experts estimate that equates to a $5 billion increase in costs for the poor former Soviet satellite, which buys about 20 million metric tons of Russian crude annually. Belarus consumes about a quarter and ships the rest onward in a lucrative cargo worth more than a third of the country’s export revenues.
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