Medvedev urges EEU states against comparing prices for Russian gas

PanARMENIAN.Net - Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev called on his Eurasian Economic Union (EEU) counterparts Tuesday, March 7 to not compare prices for Russian gas, saying non-membership in the EEU could have led to European-level prices, Sputnik reports.

"In plain language, if some countries were not part of our Union, they would now be buying gas at European or near-European prices, starting at $200 per 1,000 cubic meters," Medvedev said.

EEU members should not shift bilateral issues onto the bloc, Medvedev stressed.

"Here we are considering issues that concern everyone," he said at the Eurasian Intergovernmental Council in Kyrgyzstan.

Medvedev's Belarusian counterpart Andrei Kobyakov said that Minsk's work in the EEU was fundamentally affected by its disputes with Russia.

"The problems of bilateral relations fundamentally affect our participation in multilateral integration processes," Kobyakov said at the event.

Minsk and Moscow have been engaged in a long-term dispute over gas prices, with the Russian side accusing Belarus of nonpayment of debts. Paying off the gas debt is one of the conditions for restoring the volume of Russia's oil supplies to Belarus, which had declined amid the gas row.

Armenia pays $150 per 1,000 cubic meters of gas.