Belarus: Dude, Where's My SSR?

Ern: Does Belarus hear itself when it talks? Because she's just not making any sense to me. From RFE/RL:

BELARUS EXPLAINS WHY RUSSIA SHOULD SUPPLY IT WITH CHEAP ENERGY

Anatol Rubinau, deputy head of the Belarusian presidential administration responsible for ideological issues, said at a meeting of the National Academy of Sciences on February 7 that Russia's recent increase of energy prices for Belarus was neither friendly nor honest, Belapan reported. "Now our products will become more expensive and won't be able to compete with Russian ones," Rubinau said, adding that Moscow wants to drive Belarusian goods out of the Russian market and effectively "strangle our economy." Therefore, Rubinau continued, Belarus should have been granted the same access to Russian hydrocarbon resources as the Belarusian Soviet Socialist Republic enjoyed in the Soviet economy. JM

(Because the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics still exists, exactly. PBD)