For a second day, the Ukrainian national energy company Naftogaz refused to accept Russian gas due to be transited to Europe, Russia’s gas monopoly Gazprom said on Wednesday. Gazprom said it submitted another application with Naftogaz on Wednesday for the transit of 98.8 million cubic metres of gas, including 13.9 million intended for Moldova, 62.7 billion for the Balkan states, and 22.2 million for Slovakia. Russia, which has accused the Ukraine of tapping gas bound for Europe, resumed shipments after a weeklong cut-off on Tuesday after a team led by EU monitors was deployed at gas metering stations in the Ukraine. However, Gazprom later said that Kiev was blocking the gas shipments.
The monopoly said on Wednesday it had requested that gas be transited via the Sudzha entry point on the Russian border, an export pipeline with direct access to the nations affected by the dispute, including Bulgaria, Romania, and Turkey. Gazprom also said that Naftogaz was demanding that the gas be sent via other transit stations, used mainly for gas intended for Ukraine’s domestic use, and that they receive 140 million cubic metres in order to be able to resume supplies. The Ukraine claimed that Russia has not provided enough “technical gas” necessary to maintain pipeline pressure and pump the required volumes to Europe. Kiev also said that Moscow had demanded a complicated transit route be used that would force Ukraine to cut its domestic supplies.
“Naftogaz’s repeated refusals demonstrate that the Ukraine is unable to replenish the gas reserves it has siphoned off and resume transits. Gazprom is prepared to restart supplies for European consumers at any moment”, a spokesman for the Russian energy giant said. On Wednesday, the Naftogaz chief rejected Russia’s claims that the Ukraine had illegally siphoned off its gas, saying the company had transited 1.2 billion cubic meters of gas to Moldova. Oleg Dubyna also said gas transits were “technically” not possible at the moment. “We cannot reactivate the [transit] network for such insignificant amounts [of gas] and for an indefinite time”, Mr Dubyna said, urging a provisional agreement with Russia that stipulated transit volumes and routes.
Yuri Prodan, the Ukrainian energy minister, urged EU officials on Wednesday to pressure Moscow over the delays in transits. European Commission President José Manuel Barroso was reported to have called the crisis “unacceptable and incredible” and warned the EU could advise energy firms to sue Russian and Ukrainian energy companies unless gas supplies were restored quickly. The crisis has hit about 20 EU countries in the height of winter, forcing them to close schools, factories and leaving householders without heating. The prime ministers of Slovakia, which has said it could reactivate its aging nuclear power plant to make up for the shortfalls in energy supplies, Bulgaria, and Moldova are due to meet with their Russian counterpart in Moscow on Wednesday to discuss the situation. Russia cut off gas supplies to the Ukraine on 1 January after talks on debt and a gas price for 2009 broke down. On 7 January, Moscow cut off shipments to Europe, accusing the Ukraine of siphoning off gas in transit for European consumers.
Gazprom’s deputy CEO, Aleksandr Medvedev, called the Ukraine’s behaviour in the dispute “unbelievable” and suggested that the United States could be behind the row. “It looks like the entire musical show underway in the Ukraine is being orchestrated from outside the country”, he said. US State Department spokesman Sean McCormack rejected the claim as “totally without foundation”. On Wednesday a popular Russian newspaper said that under a cooperation agreement Kiev and Washington signed in December, the US would modernise Ukraine’s crumbling transit pipelines and could receive control of the vast network. “This may explain Kiev’s ‘bravery’”, in the dispute, Izvestiya said. The paper also said, “America could well use the current tensions in the Ukraine as a pretext for one of its campaigns ‘to protect democracy’”. In his turn, Ukrainian President Viktor Yushchenko accused Russia of using the dispute to try to seize control of the Ukraine’s pipelines.
14 January 2009
RIA-Novosti
http://en.rian.ru/russia/20090114/119486126.html (in English)
Editor’s Note:
I believe that Izvestiya is correct in its assessment. GWB is desperate to “leave a legacy”, Condoleezza Rice is an evil woman without any scruples whatsoever, and the neocons wish to leave a mess for Barack Obama. Reflect on the fact that Yushchenko has a favourability rating of 2.4 percent. 2.4 percent! Even GWB has done better in that regard.
The Galician Uniate nationalist extremists are shown for what they are, truly and without equivocation. They are a pack of Baron Munchausens without regard for the truth, for others, or, for that matter, the peoples of the Ukraine (who are mostly NOT Ukrainian, they are the victims of Soviet internal boundaries that did not reflect ethnic realities).
This sounds eerily similar to the situation in August, when Georgia started its invasion of South Ossetia with an indiscriminate Grad bombardment of sleeping civilians. The US backed that, as well, and, indeed, signed a “strategic partnership agreement” with Saakashvili recently. As for Mr McCormack’s denials, do remember that he is part of the same gang that touted Iraqi WMDs… Methinks the maiden doth protesteth TOO much.
Aren’t you glad that John McCain and feckless Mizz Sarah weren’t elected last November? They are amongst the select group of people stupider than Viktor Yushchenko. I shudder to think what would have happened. Thank the good God, the world was spared that, at the least.
