Belarus says it will sell its remaining stakes in its strategic natural gas pipelines to Russia's Gazprom for $2.5 billion.The deal will help the Kremlin-controlled gas giant secure
exports to Europe that have been affected by pricing disputes with Belarus and neighboring Ukraine in recent years.
Gazprom already owns a 50 percent stake in Beltransgaz, the holding company of the network, under a $2.5 billion deal struck in 2006. Beltransgaz carries some 20 percent of Gazprom's gas exports to Europe.
The Belarus government said Thursday that First Deputy Prime Minister Vladimir Semashko is in Moscow, completing the deal to sell the company's remaining 50 percent.
The ex-Soviet nation of 10 million is gripped by the worst economic crisis in its post-Soviet history.
Source: Associated Press
