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Belarus will divert cargoes to Russian seaports, Lukashenka says

Belarus will divert most of its cargoes from Lithuanian and Latvian seaports to seaports in Russia`s Leningrad province, Alyaksandr Lukashenka said at a meeting with Aleksandr Drozdenko, governor of the province, in Minsk on November 9, BelaPAN said.

"We discussed this matter very seriously at the most recent meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin," the government`s news agency BelTA quoted Mr. Lukashenka as saying.

He said that Minsk had made a decision to divert potash fertilizer shipments to Russian seaports. "The Russian president backed this initiative unambiguously. We must reach agreement with the railroad operators of Belarus and Russia and implement the agreements as soon as possible," he said.

Mr. Lukashenka suggested that Russia offer Belarus discounts on the transportation of its cargoes to the seaports and their transshipment, which he said would be offset by a volume of "tens of millions of tons" of Belarusian cargoes.

Mr. Drozdenko, for his part, said that if Russia offered Belarus the same transportation rates as the Baltic states, it would be beneficial for both countries. "We are ready today to transport equipment, mineral fertilizers, petroleum products and many other goods through our seaports. We must take the maximum effort to secure fair rates," he said.

Mr. Lukashenka warned this past April that Belarus could divert its shipments from Lithuanian and Latvian seaports in retaliation for the European Union`s sanctions. "I make no secret that we`re in talks with Russia about lower rail carriage rates so as to increase our traffic to its Baltic ports," he said. "They would be happy to see millions of tons of our shipments."