MINSK, June 28. /TASS/. Belarus reserves the right to go to court if Russia refuses to compensate for lost profits due to substandard oil, Deputy Prime Minister of Belarus Igor Lyashenko said on Friday.

"We see, obviously, that in case of failure to reach an agreement the issue will be settled through court," Lyashenko said.

He explained, "lost profits is a vision of one of the parties." "In particular, based on the materials that we presented to the Russian side, the discussion concerned the volume of oil refining at the Mozyrsky Oil Refinery. No deals were made on it, even China did not accept this oil for processing," Lyashenko said. "Naturally, we have put forward our claim amount. I would not say it specifically so far, but it is significant," he added.

In mid-April, Belneftekhim reported a sharp deterioration in the quality of the Russian oil running through the pipeline. As a result, several states stopped receiving and refining the Russian oil. The contaminant source was revealed at the Samara-Unecha section. Transneft said that the Russian oil in the Druzhba pipeline was deliberately contaminated. Russia’s Investigative Committee said that contaminated oil was loaded into the Druzhba oil pipeline in order to conceal multiple oil thefts.

Supplies of on-spec oil to Belarus resumed in early May. Later, transit of oil through Belarus to Ukraine and Poland was restored.