Russia. Gas cut to Belarus over unpaid debts

Russia warned Europe on Monday about cuts in gas supplies after the Kremlin told Gazprom, its state-owned energy giant, to start turning off the tap to Belarus over unpaid debts. Russia cut supplies to Belarus by 15 per cent and threatened to reduce them by 85 per cent unless it settled an unpaid bill of almost $200 million. Belarus transports about 20 per cent of Russia's western-bound gas exports and the flow to Europe was not interrupted after the reduction. Still, the cut-off threatened to repeat previous crises caused when Russia turned off gas supplies to Ukraine and the European Union activated crisis planning measures.

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