Belarusian-Russian disputes at international courts

The other day the board of the CIS economic court turned down Belarus' suit against Russia about illegitimacy of export duties on Russian oil products. Simultaneously Moscow's petition for settling the conflict out-of-court was satisfied. Formally Minsk still has a chance to win trying to insist on lifting the duties at the next court meeting on October 7.

Belarus substantiates its demand to annul duties on oil and oil products by the fact of establishment of the Customs Union of Russia, Belarus and Kazakhstan. However, agreements on the Customs Union stipulate significant exceptions from its legal framework. In particular, Minsk retained low import tariffs on dozens of commodities including automobiles but the main exception concerns issues of supplies of hydrocarbons. The republic will have to wait for the abolishment of duties until January 1, 2012 when the provision on the Single Economic Area is to come into force. But before there will be presidential elections in Belarus; despite rigidity of current state authorities the election results may influence sentiments of citizens who are losing those well-known social benefits provided by Lukashenko. Belarus' current exports of oil products have already halved - the budget lacks revenues that are so necessary during the pre-election period. This results in tough struggle against the position of Russian state authorities that we see on TV and in international courts.

It is unlikely to defeat Russia in courts of various unions. In particular, the Eurasian Economic Community court (the "Commonwealth Court"), whose functions have been implemented by the CIS court so far, has considered only one (!) case during eight years of existence of EurAsEC. At the same time, there is not a single document saying that rulings of the Commonwealth Court are obligatory. Not long ago simultaneously with the signing of documents on the Customs Union a new edition of the EurAsEC Court Statute was adopted stipulating broadening of competence of the Commonwealth Court as far as cases within the framework of the Customs Union are concerned. However these supranational instances remain rather sloppy and amorphous; their work is mainly symbolic, not functional. This is why there is no guarantee that the new court will really function and the sides in dispute will not be able to sabotage its rulings even if there are passed.

By Stanistav Mitrakhovich, NESF leading expert