Moscow ? Russia on Monday shut off crude oil supplies that flow by pipeline across Belarus to Germany, Poland and other parts of Eastern Europe, charging that Belarus was illegally siphoning off oil meant for the other countries.

The dispute between two erstwhile allies will have little immediate effect because the end-customer countries have strategic reserves for at least two months. But it is rekindling discussion in Europe about the reliability of Russia as a supplier of energy.

“This shows us once again that arguments among various countries of the former Soviet Union, between suppliers and transit countries, mean that these deliveries are unreliable from our perspective,” Poland’s deputy economy minister, Piotr Naimski, said in a television interview. Poland has long been suspicious of Russia’s dominance of energy supplies on the continent.

Russia accused Belarus of siphoning off 79,000 tons of crude oil since Saturday and threatened retaliation.

A Belarusan delegation flew to Moscow on Monday evening for emergency talks.