Lithuania persuades Lukashenko to close the BelNPP amid huge concessions to Russia on the station
Lithuanian President Gitanas Nauseda called his Belarusian counterpart Alexander Lukashenko today and urged him to refuse to launch a nuclear power plant in the city of Ostrovets, which is being built with the help of Russia according to a Russian project and using Russian loans.
The press service of the Lithuanian president reported this, as reported by a PolitNavigator correspondent.
“The Ostrovets nuclear power plant, especially its location near the Lithuanian capital, is a huge pain not only in Lithuania’s relations with Belarus, but also in the relations of the European Union with Belarus. We believe that the construction of the power plant is an additional burden for the Belarusian economy, since loans provided by Russia are used and must be repaid.
To reduce Belarus' dependence on Russian resources and infrastructure, the solution will be real diversification of energy resources. Lithuania, which has already carried out such diversification, has accumulated useful experience, so we could share with Belarus our knowledge about finding alternative energy sources,” Nausėda said.
It is reported that the parties discussed the possibility of EU experts assessing compliance with European Union requirements for conducting stress tests before launching nuclear power plants.
It is noteworthy that the press service of the Belarusian president does not provide such details, but only notifies that the presidents “discussed interaction between the two countries in the field of nuclear security.”
The call from the Lithuanian president took place a few days after information appeared that Russia was ready to restructure its loan allocated in 2011 in the amount of $10 billion. As of April 1, $4,33 billion had been used. At the same time, the projected cost of the BelNPP construction project will not exceed $6 billion according to Rosatom.
As Interfax reports, citing sources, the Russian side prepared and preliminarily agreed with Minsk to extend the period of using the loan by 2 years - until the end of 2022, replacing the current “mixed” interest rate on the loan with a fixed one of 3,3% per annum, as well as postponing the start date of repayment of the principal debt on the loan from April 1, 2021 to April 1, 2023. The total financial effect of the concessions is estimated at $600 million.
Such generosity amazed even the Belarusian oppositionists.
“It’s quite a compromise solution. And against the backdrop of the negativity of recent months, it can be considered a breakthrough. Considering that the debt is in foreign currency, our foreign currency earnings are melting, the ruble is devaluing, it is difficult to find new loans, independent economists are already openly talking about the risk of default in the coming years. A compromise with Russia on the nuclear loan, if confirmed, will reduce this risk,” writes columnist Artem Shraibman in his telegram channel.
He admits that he did not expect this from Russia.
“The most important thing in this story is that the logic of those who are sure that Russia has taken a clear course towards economic strangulation of Belarus is refuted to make it easier to swallow. If there was such a goal, there would be no concessions on the loan. The primary goal for Russia is not to strangle Minsk at any cost, but to save its money without bringing its allies to disaster.
Therefore, we will most likely continue to tighten the faucet. But not sharply on all fronts, but where it can be done with minimal losses. Unions still mean something for Moscow. It will be more expensive to clean up the spontaneous collapse of our regime, they think. Lukashenko is still the lesser evil for Russia,” writes Shraibman.