Lights On: Russia resumes power supply to Belarus

The country had to pay overdue electricity bills of around $42.48 million for supplies in April and May

MOSCOW: Russia’s power group InterRAO has resumed electricity supplies to Belarus on Saturday, the company’s spokesman said, ending nearly four days of power cuts over unpaid bills. “Delivieries to Belarus have been resumed and are being carried out at full volume,” InterRAO’s Anton Nazarov said. Earlier on Saturday the Kremlin said President Dmitry Medvedev ordered Deputy Prime Minister Igor Sechin, who oversees Russia’s oil and natural gas sectors, to resume power supplies to the country. The power outage forced the former Soviet country to pay overdue electricity bills of around 1.2 billion roubles ($42.48 million) for supplies in April and May. Analysts say Moscow is trying to boost its leverage over Belarus leader Alexander Lukashenko, pushing him to sell assets which are being eyed by some of Russia’s most powerful business groups.

Published in The Express Tribune, July 3^rd, 2011.