Posted on 01/14/2009 1:55:42 PM PST by Anti-Bubba182
The bitter gas dispute between Russia and Ukraine descended into near-chaos on Tuesday, leaving European Union diplomats baffled as promises to restart supplies fully were broken and Moscow suggested that the US had meddled in the affair.
In a potentially alarming twist on Tuesday night, Gazprom, the Russian gas company, said it was unable to meet its legal commitments to supply European countries with gas because Ukraine was allegedly blocking the flow across its territory.[snip]............
EU officials said the monitors had, after long delays, been given access to control rooms at gas dispatch centres but they would not predict when flows would resume.
Jonathan Stern, head of gas research at the Oxford Institute of Energy Studies, said Russian and Ukrainian statements were “all smoke and mirrors”.
“We should not be listening now to what Medvedev or Naftogaz tell us. We should be listening to the monitors,” he said.
(Excerpt) Read more at ft.com ...
So why isn’t Gerhard Schröder’s name more prominent in this debacle? He was championed by American leftists and Euroweenies as their example of a true leader for the way that he stabbed America in the back during the run-up to the Iraq war. Then he took his reward by joining Gazprom. His fingers have to be all over this, yet ‘strangely’ we hear nothing about him in any of these articles...
Why on earth would anyone trust or believe anything from jack-booted neo-Soviet commie thugs?
Oh, I forgot, socialist Euro-weenies will believe anything that makes them feel good.
The outright sabotage that the US took part in by selling defective parts by proxy to the USSR for their pipelines was absolute brilliance.
Ronald Reagan, please come back.
Was it defective parts or was it bogus plans for a valve or something that the USSR stole, copied and caused a refinery (?) to blow up.
What’s happened here is the the Ukrainians have been pilfering gas from the transit-pipes for years and the Russians have been looking the other way (for whatever reason). Finally, at the end of last year, the Russians got fed up and told Ukraine that they can damn well pay for the gas, same as anyone else. In response, the Ukraine shut off the transit-pipes in hopes to blackmail Russian companies into giving them significantly lower prices on the gas than other European customers are paying.
Once the north-stream pipeline is completed (which will run under the baltic sea directly to Germany) and the expansion of the blue-stream Russia-Turkey pipeline under the Black Sea is upgraded, Ukraine won’t have any leverage anymore.
Truth is, Russia needs the gas to flow as much as, or more, than Europe does. It’s one of their major sources of foreign trade and currency. Every second that gas is turned off is a second Europe is working on alternatives and Russia can ill afford that. While I distrust Russia in every instance, in this particular it’s the Ukrainians doing the mugging.
Gazprom, the Russian gas company, said it was unable to meet its legal commitments to supply European countries with gas because Ukraine was allegedly blocking the flow across its territory.Russia has been laying groundwork to invade the Ukraine. There's also the possibility that Russia *can't* supply the gas due to infrastructure failures (and incompetence).
I was just waiting for this one...
Some days, the bear gets you...
Sometimes, the sheer, unadulterated ignorance of people CONFOUND me....
I read about it in a book a while back. Crusader by Paul Kengor, perhaps? I'd have to review my notes.
Europeans are beyond redemption. Did they really think, when they tied themselves to Russian oil, it would not be ultimately be used as a club by the Russian government?
Of course, leftist demrats here at home, have managed to do the same thing here. They block every attempt at making us independent of Mid East oil. That is why we have soldiers fighting and dying in Iraq and Afghanistan—even more than Al Queda’s dastardly 9/11 attack. Afterall, if we weren’t buying Mid East oil the muslim terrorists could not make the argument that America is exploiting the region.
EU: Russia stinks when it doesn’t pass gas.
How long is it going to take for them to realize they are dealing with the Russian Mob ?
A whole lot of Pleasure mixed with some Business.
Oligarchs. IE - Mob Bosses.
Kinda funny the arrogance they routinely exhibit towards us isn’t backed up by sound judgement on the world stage, for the last century, isn’t it?
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