Belarus officials on Friday sought to defuse rising tension with neighbour and chief ally Russia, saying they want to negotiate an end to an acrimonious dispute over crude oil duties and transit fees, according to Reuters. On Wednesday Belarus President Alexander Lukashenko -- branded by Washington as Europe's last dictator -- slapped a $45 per tonne fee on Russian crude oil pumped through a major Belarus pipeline to Europe. Three days earlier Moscow had forced Minsk to sign a deal doubling the price of imported Russian gas. Russia responded by calling Belarus' oil transit fees unprecedented and contradicting economic agreements between the two sides. "The Belarus side is ready to continue negotiations with its Russian partner on oil supply conditions even tomorrow," Anton Kudasov, head of external economic relations at the Belarussian foreign ministry, told a news briefing. Russia has also said it will charge Belarus an export duty on imports of crude oil, which it says is being refined and unfairly sold at a profit on to European consumers, and has also banned imports of white sugar from Belarus.
