Senior partner Denis Aleinikov expressed his opinion to the Belarusian Telegraph Agency on Agreement of 12 January 2007 signed between Belarus and Russia ragarding oil deliveries to Belarus.

"Belarus and Russia can determine the terms for levying duties only by means of making new agreements and introducing necessary addenda to the Agreement of 12 January 2007," Denis Aleinikov stated.

"This agreement is termless. It did not terminate on 1 January 2010. Import duty is imposed on the Russian crude oil coming to Belarus in accordance with this agreement and not with any other documents including legislative acts of Russia and Belarus. Only Article 2 that defines relevant customs duty rates for 2007, 2008 and 2009 is temporary," he said.

"In this respect, proceeding from the general theory of law, there are no legal grounds for levying duties at the rate of 100%. The conditions for levying duties can be defined with the help of new agreements between the two sides and introduction of all necessary addenda to the agreement," the expert stressed.