No confirmation from Gazprom yet about Belarus's second installment for Russian gas

Neither Gazprom nor Beltransgaz have released comments to confirm that Belarus has wired the second installment of funds in order to pay off the debt for the Russian gas supplied over the past six months of 2007. The Belarus-based ONT TV channel reported yesterday that over $300 million out of the total debt of $456 million had already been paid. Gazprom would earlier confirm that only $190 million were wired to Moscow in the morning of August 3.

Belarus has just three days remaining to clear the whole debt to the Russian gas giant. If Belarus defaults, Gazprom will cut gas supplies to this country proportionally to the payment, reports BelaPAN