Putin Says Belarus Gas Row Resolved

President Vladimir Putin and his Belarussian counterpart said Saturday that they had solved a conflict over Russian natural gas supplies that badly strained bilateral relations. However, neither of the two leaders said what specific agreements they reached. Russian natural gas companies briefly suspended supplies to Belarus earlier this year in a dispute over prices. The move drew an angry response from Lukashenko, who accused Moscow of charging a higher gas price to blackmail Belarus into surrendering control over its pipelines, which also carry Russian gas to Western consumers. Putin on Saturday cast the conflict as a dispute between companies. "Some problems are interpreted as interstate, but, in fact, they only exist between companies," Putin was quoted as saying. Russian gas suppliers continued shipments, but only signed short-term contracts in an apparent attempt to maintain pressure on Belarus. They said they could no longer subsidize Belarus by supplying it with gas at a fraction of its market value. Russia and Belarus signed a union treaty in 1996 that envisaged close political, economic and military ties but stopped short of creating a single state. A plan to introduce the Russian ruble as the two nations' single currency starting in January 2005 has run into problems amid Belarussian officials' concerns that it could give giant Russia too much leverage over the nation of 10 million.