Azernews.Az

Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev’s lending funds worth $200 million to his Belarusian counterpart Alexander Lukashenko to clear the country’s debt to Russian gas giant Gazprom is in spotlight of political circles. Discussions are mainly ongoing on two key issues: potential benefits that Belarus could bring to Azerbaijan in exchange for the assistance and what factors underlie President Aliyev’s lending a hand to Minsk.
Lukashenko said earlier in an interview with Euronews TV channel that Belarus had sought two weeks from Moscow to repay the outstanding debt. "But our partners, our closest ones said ‘no, we won’t wait a single day’. So, I appealed to Ilham Aliyev, the Azerbaijani President. He lent me $200 million within 24 hours, even sooner than that. We paid $187m to Gazprom and settled accounts 100 percent."
The Azerbaijani President’s spokesman, Azer Gasymov, has said Belarusian Prime Minister Sergei Sidorsky had on June 21 appealed to his Azerbaijani counterpart, Artur Rasizada, over Azerbaijan’s allocating a short-term loan to his country. Further, the request was reported to President Aliyev, and, considering the friendship relations between the two countries, the president approved the allocation.
"This loan was allocated for 12 days. All the necessary documents regarding the credit have been signed," Gasymov said.
Elkhan Shahinoglu, the head of the Atlas research center, does not rule out that "the loan story" is a political issue. He pointed out that Russia has long been pressuring Belarus. In the past, when the Kremlin saw its relations with Ukraine sour, Moscow sought to export its gas to European markets through Belarusian territory, the analyst said.
"Now, a contrary situation has emerged. At a time there is a way to transport gas via Ukraine, a problem is being experienced with Belarus," he concluded.
Shahinoglu believes that Russia is now trying "to repeat the ‘Ukraine scenario’ in Belarus".
"In other words, just like former Ukrainian President Yushchenko, it wants to estrange the Belarusian president from power, to replace him. Azerbaijan’s helping Belarus at a time like this could anger Russia. But it can’t be that Baku has no reasons of its own for having taken this step.
"This could be Azerbaijan’s counter-step against Russia. This is because Baku was binding great hopes that Russia would be able to persuade Armenia to [accept] the latest document on Upper (Nagorno) Garabagh conflict settlement [the peace outline dubbed the Madrid principles]. This being said, Azerbaijan had signed a gas agreement and expanded its economic relations with Russia. But the latest meeting – held in St. Petersburg [among the Azerbaijani, Armenian and Russian presidents] – once again confirmed that Russia has no intention to influence Armenia. As soon as that meeting concluded, instances of ceasefire violations in Upper Garabagh increased. So, it is already being sensed that Baku no longer has any hope for Russia. It appears that behind this assistance provided to Belarus there are signs of [Azerbaijan’s] discontent with Russia."
According to Shahinoglu, overall, there is not much Belarus can offer Azerbaijan. On the contrary, this country, whose economy is facing a predicament, is, itself, in dire need of Azerbaijani energy resources – oil and gas, while Azerbaijan, in lieu of its assistance, could only purchase military machinery from Belarus.
Despite being a member of the Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO), the military arm of the former Soviet bloc CIS, and its stance leaning toward Armenia, Minsk has lately been cooperating more closely with Azerbaijan in the military field.
When the gas dispute had emerged, Gazprom reduced its gas supplies to Belarus. The company said Minsk owed it $192 million for the fuel supplied over six months. Gazprom confirmed on June 24 that the debt had been cleared, saying gas supplies to Belarus have been fully resumed.*