Minsk paid off its 600 million ruble ($21.16 million) debt to Russia`s electricity export company Inter RAO on Wednesday and the company will resume electricity supplies to Belarus at midnight, a company spokesman said, according to RIA Novosti.

Belarusian Deputy Energy Minister Lyudmila Zenkevich said that Belarus "paid the second tranche for the supplied Russian electricity at 18.00 Moscow time [14:00 GMT]."

Belarus has been struggling to pay for electricity from Russia amid an economic crisis in the former Soviet republic that has left hard currency in short supply. Russia cut off deliveries on Tuesday evening after repeatedly extending the payment deadline.

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Inter RAO halved electricity supplies to Belarus on June 9 before restoring full deliveries when a payment schedule was agreed with Belarus`s utility Belenergo, which made a partial payment of 600 million rubles ($21.2 million) on June 15.

When Belenergo failed to make the second payment, Inter RAO threatened to cut off exports on June 22, postponing the deadline until late on Monday, then to Tuesday morning before finally halting deliveries late on Tuesday.

Belarus meets about 12 percent of its electricity needs through Inter RAO supplies.