BBC:
Russia has accused Ukraine of stealing $25m of gas exports destined for Europe after it cut off supplies to the country on Sunday. Some European states say supplies from a pipeline running through Ukraine have fallen by up to 40%. Ukraine denied taking the gas, but said it would indeed siphon off a share if temperatures fell below freezing. GAS CUT IMPACT:
* Ukraine - loses 100% of Russian imports
* Hungary - Russian imports down 40%
* Poland - supply down 14% on Sunday.
Seeking to increase supplies from alternative pipe
* Austria, Slovakia, Romania - supplies down by a third
* Germany - no problems yet, but later cuts to big firms "not ruled out"
* France - heavy user of Russian gas, but no problems likely yet
ENI reports that ITALY'S gas imports from Russia are down 25%, to only 6% of their total. Nevertheless they are calling an emergency meeting on the situation.
IHT/NYT:
IHT/NYT:
Russia's abrupt disruption in natural gas supplies intended for Ukraine cascaded through the European pipeline system Monday, with Hungary, Austria and Slovakia reporting a drop in pressure at a time of peak winter demand, deepening the sense that a dispute between Russia and Ukraine over prices was spiraling into a wider energy crisis.CHECKOUT A COMPLETE ROUND-UP ON THIS CRISIS in thorough post I wrote earlier HERE.
An executive at Gazprom, the Russian energy giant, accused Ukraine of diverting natural gas exports intended for Western Europe to satisfy the needs of the former Soviet republic of 48 million people, with an economy heavily dependent on cheap natural gas. Ukraine's energy minister immediately denied the accusation.
The fact that Putin is willing to shut off gas supplies to the Ukraine, evoking the memory of Stalin's deliberate starvation of the Ukraine, shows that he is not a "western politician" in any sense of the word. He is basically an autocrat, and the west had better take notice of that fact before continuing to treat his regime as anything analogous to the regimes of the west.
ReplyDeleteso true gandalin.
ReplyDeletei hope we are doing some things NOW to make sure putin's annointed KBG successor isn't elected next time.