No rush with Union State’s single energy market – Russian envoy

September 16, BPN. It is unreasonable to speed up the launch of a common oil, gas and electricity market of Russia and Belarus, said the Russian ambassador to Belarus.

Minsk and Moscow must agree on common tax and customs systems first, Boris Gryzlov told Russia’s Piterburzhskiy Dnevnik.

Citing a contract to build a plant for the assembly of Belarusian tractors in Russia’s Krasnodar region, the diplomat noted that Russia is helping Belarus deal with the impact of Western sanctions. According to him, Belarus has missed out on about $14 billion in export revenues from Ukraine and the EU.

Gryzlov also said that trade between Russia and Belarus grew by 12 percent in the first half of 2022 year on year, with share of Belarusian exports to Russia rising from 37 percent in January to 64 percent in June.