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Belarusian Prime Minister Sergei Sidorsky is meeting with his Russian counterpart, Mikhail Fradkov, in Moscow from July 30 to Aug. 1 to ask for a $1.5 billion loan from the Kremlin. Part of the loan is to cover Belarus' $450 million debt accrued during the six months since Russian state-controlled natural gas behemoth Gazprom raised the cost of natural gas from $55 per 1,000 cubic meters to $100 in January. Relations between the previously close Russia and Belarus have been notably strained since this price hike, leading to a series of struggles over pipelines, money and control of the Russian natural gas that flows to Europe. Now Belarus is groveling on the Kremlin's doorstep and has no choice but to begin bowing to Gazprom's demands for Belarusian energy assets, keeping Minsk firmly under Moscow's thumb.
Belarusian President Aleksandr Lukashenko has failed to fend off the Kremlin's advances into Belarus. As "the last dictator in Europe," Lukashenko has isolated himself from the West and proven unreliable to Russia by retaliating against the Moscow-ordered natural gas price increase. Thus, Belarus is at Russia's mercy, and now Gazprom control over Belarusian natural gas pipeline firm Beltransgaz is on the horizon -- a huge loss for Belarus but a huge gain for Gazprom, since 20 percent of Russian natural gas exports to Europe travel through Belarus.
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