Russian gas giant Gazprom has warned it will cut supply to Belarus by nearly half as of Friday, following a row over unpaid debts. Gazprom says Belarus can afford to pay the 333 million or so euros it owes under a previous agreement. Talks are ongoing but Belorus insists it doesn’t have the money and could not say whether a deal could be reached in time. Moscow has recently doubled the price Belarus has to pay for its gas to around 73 euros per thousand cubic meters. That is still well below the price paid by western Europe, which gets a quarter of its gas from Gazprom via pipelines in Belarus and Ukraine. Supplies to western Europe were disrupted after similar disputes in the past. Gazprom has said it will try to avoid a repeat of those problems.

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