Opening remarks by Prime Minister Vladimir Putin:

Good afternoon, colleagues. As you know, a meeting of the Supreme State Council of the Union State of Russia and Belarus is being held in Moscow today. The Russian government is directly involved in the preparation of these documents. Today's Presidium meeting agenda includes issues concerned with developing cooperation with Belarus and the advance of all integration processes. We will be considering many issues of our bilateral relations; but two issues – energy and machine building – are the key ones.

The first, a perennial issue in our relations with our neighbours, has to do with energy supplies. Today, we will sign an intergovernmental agreement, along with the corresponding contracts and corporate documents, that will govern our supply of natural gas to Belarus. Belarus will receive a so-called integration discount for a few years and by 2014 will gradually start paying as much as our European customers minus export duties and the transportation cost. Today, Belarus is paying 244 dollars per 1,000 cubic metres of gas. We have reached an agreement with the Belarusian government, whereby we will restructure these payments next year, given the difficulties facing the Belarusian economy. Next year, with an average projected price of about 400 dollars for European consumers, Belarus will be paying us 164 dollars per 1,000 cubic metres. This is a substantial discount for our Belarusian partners and friends, one that will help them keep at least 2 billion dollars in their economy. We have also agreed that Gazprom will acquire 100% interest in Beltransgaz, the Belarusian gas transportation system. This is a very important issue which will help normalise our relations with Belarus for years to come, and will also secure the unconditional transport of Russian energy supplies across Belarus to Western Europe.

The second issue also has to do with energy, but in this case it is about nuclear power engineering and the construction of a Belarusian nuclear power station. This is a comprehensive matter – it's clearly a high-tech area – that is associated with finding a way to finance such a major project. We have agreed that we will sign corresponding documents today about providing a Russian loan in the amount of 10 billion dollars to Belarus that will be used over the course of ten years and paid off over 15 years.

As you understand, these are landmark events in our bilateral relations. We should approve these decisions today at our Government meeting, in accordance with existing procedures and legislation. If there are any additional comments or proposals regarding these documents, it's not too late to introduce them and to agree with our Belarusian partners, though these issues have been thoroughly discussed at the corporate level and at the level of corresponding departments.

Let's get to work.