2007 Press Releases

State Department Spokesman Sean McCormack on Belarus-Russia oil and gas dispute

State Department Daily Press Briefing
Washington, DC
January 4, 2007

On oil: "...the past practice of the Belarusian regime had been to take that oil free from that export duty, refine it, and then sell it at a clear profit overseas. And so what the Belarusian Government is now trying to...keep their skim while they export this oil, so it's just another example [of] the rotten core of [the Lukashenko] regime..."
 
On Gazprom: "[Russia is] trying to use their energy resources as a political lever and most especially with those neighbor states. We saw it with Ukraine last year. We saw it with Georgia. We see it with Belarus now...it's a lesson about the importance of maintaining and developing multiple sources of energy supply as well as multiple means to convey those energy supplies.”