Moscow could conduct "the gas war" against Belarus to assure the European Union of the necessity to build a new pipeline "South Stream" referring to the unreliability of the routes across former Soviet republics. Valentin Zemlyanski, a former head of the "Oilgas Ukraine" company, has claimed it in an interview with a news agency "New Region".
In his opinion, the reason for the recent gas conflict was the fact that Lukashenka was unwilling to join the Customs Union and that the European Union had lost interest in the South Stream pipeline project.
At the same time, the Belarusian economy has not been affected in any way. Russia has demonstrated the unreliability of the current fuel transit routes to Europe again. Furthermore, Russia has strengthened its position in the negotiations with Ukraine concerning the creation of a joint enterprise. So, the expert does not exclude that the conflict was caused on purpose.
