An e-mail update from Radio Free Europe I received suggests a very strong reason for Alexander Lukashenka's little "come on" to Europe the other day. (See this Vital Signs Blog post from last Thursday.)"In the latest installment of the energy row between Russia and Belarus, Semyon Vainshtok, who heads the pipeline monopoly Transneft, said on February 5 that his company has decided to build a new branch oil pipeline from Unecha near the Belarusian border via Velikie Luki to Primorsk near the Finnish border, the daily "Kommersant" reported. The proposed pipeline will have a capacity of 50 million metric tons annually and would cost up to $2.5 million. It is not clear how long it will take to build this extension of the Baltic Pipeline System, which will be about 1,000 kilometers long."
