Belarus has fully repaid its electricity debt to Russia's electricity export monopoly Inter RAO, the BelTA state news agency said on Friday, quoting the country's Deputy Energy Minister Lyudmila Zenkovich.
"There is no debt for supplies of Russian electricity," Zenkovich said.
The Belarusian electricity debt occurred because of the currency crisis which is hampering all transactions with foreign partners. Belarus says it has enough domestic currency. The problem is converting it into hard-to-find international currency. In early June, Belarus' electricity debt amounted to 1.5 billion rubles.
Belarus's First Deputy Prime Minister Vladimir Semashko said earlier on Friday that electricity supplies to the country from Ukraine and Russia would be resumed by the end of Saturday.
Inter RAO halved electricity supplies to Belarus on June 9 before restoring full deliveries when a payment schedule was agreed with Belarus's utility Belenergo, which made a partial payment of 600 million rubles ($21.2 million) on June 15. When Belenergo failed to make the second payment, Inter RAO finally halted deliveries late on June 28.
Belarus meets about 12 percent of its electricity needs through Inter RAO supplies.
