Medvedev orders gas supplies to Belarus cut

The president of Russia, Dmitrii Medvedev, has ordered Gazprom to cut gas supplies to Belarus, RIA Novosti reports. At the same time, the sides are continuing talks on debt settlements.
"Belarus acknowledges the debt, but wants to pay it off with cars, equipment and other goods," the head of Gasprom Alexander Miller said. Thus, the negotiations resulted in nothing.
Starting from the beginning of 2010 Belarus has established gas prices unilaterally and ran up debts amounting $200 million. Earlier it was announced that, under the contract, Gasprom will cut gas supplies to Belarus by 85% starting from 10pm Moscow Time on Monday. On Sunday, Minsk threatened transit problems for Moscow and sent a delegation to hold negotiations.
Experts say the gas debt of Belarus may reach $ 500-600 million by the end of the year.