OREANDA-NEWS  President of Belarus Alexander Lukashenko has approved as a basis for negotiations with Russia draft intergovernmental documents on the price of gas and tariffs for its transportation, according to the decree of the head of state published on the national legal Internet portal. "To approve as a basis for negotiations the draft protocol on amendments to the agreement between the Government of the Republic of Belarus and the Government of the Russian Federation on the procedure for setting prices (tariffs) for the supply of natural gas to the Republic of Belarus and its transportation through gas pipelines located on the territory of the Republic of Belarus, dated November 25, 2011; protocol on amendments to the agreement between the Government of the Republic of Belarus and the Government of the Russian Federation on the terms of purchase and sale of shares and further activities of the open joint stock company "Beltransgaz" dated November 25, 2011," the decree says.

The Ministry of Energy of Belarus is authorized to conduct negotiations on draft protocols and sign them when an agreement is reached within the approved projects. The decree instructs to temporarily apply the protocols from the date of their signing until their entry into force. The decree comes into force from the date of its signing — February 20.

Earlier in February, Gazprom and its subsidiary Gazprom Transgaz Belarus extended contracts for the supply of gas to Belarus for 2023-2025 and its transit through the country in 2023, it followed from the company's materials.

In December, Belarusian Prime Minister Roman Golovchenko announced that Moscow and Minsk had fixed the price of gas for the republic for three years.

The price of Russian gas for Belarus in 2023 has been agreed at the level of last year with the calculation in rubles, the head of the Ministry of Energy of the Russian Federation Nikolay Shulginov told reporters later.

The gas price for Belarus in 2022 was agreed at the level of 2021 — $ 128.52 per thousand cubic meters. Since April, Minsk has switched to payments for raw materials in Russian rubles. Intergovernmental agreements were also signed defining the conditions for the formation of the price of Russian gas for Belarus and its payment by the end of 2022 in relation to the Russian ruble.