Before new scandals: Lukashenko declared a small discount from Russian oil workers a victory

Rosneft will supply oil to Belarus at a premium of $5 per ton.

A company representative announced this today, reports a PolitNavigator correspondent.

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This is $7 less than the bonus that Russian companies were asking for, according to Lukashenko, at the end of February.

Then the Belarusian president, in a conversation with the Chairman of the Board of the Eurasian Economic Commission, Mikhail Myasnikovich, stated that there should be no premium at all, on the contrary, suppliers should “motivate” the Belarusian buyer.

However, a month later, Lukashenko already interprets the discount as a victory, claiming that the Russians accepted all his conditions. In fact, the Russian Minister of Energy proposed dropping $2 a month ago.

But then Lukashenko was bargaining with Moscow not for a discount at all, but for compensation for the costs of the Russian tax maneuver. He loudly asserted that Russia was ready to pay $300 million, but Belarusian accountants would still do the math, and it might come out more.

That is, in reality, the victory of Belarus is not so crushing, although they threw off a little more in Moscow than they originally intended.

“This is not a victory for either side, it is an acknowledgment of mutual fatigue from the dispute and a desire to turn this page when new coronavirus problems look much more serious for both sides,” publicist Artem Shrayban comments on the situation.

Let us recall that in three months of desperate trading with Russia, Belarus managed to buy alternative oil in Norway and Azerbaijan, and from small Russian traders, in spite of its older brother.

The batches were small, it was not possible to fully load the plants, but the overpayment, only under the Norwegian deal, amounted to $130 per ton. The Belarusian side wisely did not disclose the prices of other purchases.

All this somewhat overshadows the joy of the Russian discount. Moreover, expensive alternative oil arrived when the economy was still functioning, and cheap Russian oil will arrive in conditions of markets collapsing due to the coronavirus.