Posted on 04/28/2014 2:53:02 AM PDT by PaulCruz2016
Ukraine’s growing gas debt may lead to the failure of the country’s transit obligations and the reduction of gas supplies to south-eastern Europe, said the Russian Energy Ministry.
Officials from Russia, including Energy Minister Alexander Novak and Gazprom CEO Alexei Miller, and officials from Bosnia-Herzegovina, Macedonia and Moldova held talks in Moscow on Saturday.
The meeting, also attended by officials from the Russian Ministry of Economic Development and the Finance Ministry, was held in the form of consultations on the security of gas transit through Ukraine.
All sides expressed deep concern about Ukraine’s growing debt, Novak told journalists.
“Currently Ukraine’s debt is US$2.238 billion, this [figure] does not include gas deliveries made in April,” Novak noted. “The debt will rise 1.3 billion for the April deliveries.”
(Excerpt) Read more at rt.com ...
Russia is currently waging a war of aggression against the Ukraine and has unlawfully annexed the territory of the Ukraine. Consequently, the Ukraine has the legal right to suspend all contracts with Russia during the existence of Russia’s belligerant acts against the Ukraine, and the Ukraine has the right to seize all Russian assets to use for the payment of war reparations. Assets that are liable to be seized for the payment of war reparations include the accounts payable by the Ukraine to Russia for natural gas. Since Russia has abrogated its agreement and contracts with the Ukraine, which guaranteed the territorial integrity of the Ukraine with the inclusion of the Crimea and an agreed upon discounted rate for natural gas deliveries in exchange for Russia to maintain naval and military bases for a limited time period, Russia has forfeited its contracts with the Ukraine.
If that's Ukraine's position, then why should Russia export anymore gas to them?
“If that’s Ukraine’s position, then why should Russia export anymore gas to them?”
Russia gets 60% of its income from the sale of oil and gas, so Russia needs to continue deliveries of the products as much as or more than Europe needs deliveries of these products. Significant fractions of these Russian exports transit through the Ukraine, so Russia may eventually cutoff the pipelines through the Ukraine as it had done so before, but not until Russia gets as much income as possible and wrings as much propaganda value out of it as possible. Likewise, the Ukraine must refrain from exercising its rights as well, until better circumstances to asert those rights becomes available. In the meantime, the Ukraine’s legal rights during Russia’s belligerancy gives it some limited bargaining leverage while the opportunity lasts, win or lose.
I still remember in the 80s when Reagan did ALL HE COULD to delay having Russia build a huge gas line to Western Europe, out of fear that Russian would have their jugular.
Needless to say, the liberals laughed at him.
Putin isn’t going to P.O. his best customers in western Europe by turning off the gas. And he isn’t going to turn off the gas and PO his potential support base in Ukraine.
Now we are in a waiting game waiting for the Russian invasion of Ukraine. It will happen soon. Then we will get some economic sector sanctions on Russia and everybody can move on. I have no doubt Putin and the oligarchs are willing to endure that to excise their Ukrainian issues.
“Putin isn’t going to P.O. his best customers in western Europe by turning off the gas. And he isn’t going to turn off the gas and PO his potential support base in Ukraine.”
Don’t be too sure, since he has already done so before, especially if the invasion is cancelled. Also note Putin has been making a deal to sell the natural gas to China as an alternative to Europe.
No. Ukraine is under occupation of EU-Nazis and Soros, with nazis and fascist posing as Ukrainian “security forces”.
Putin is willing to murder a lot of people to retain his kleptocracy in Ukraine. Nobody else is willing to do that in Ukraine. Guess who will win?
One day next month Russian Army “peacekeepers” will appear at the checkpoints being built in Ukraine. There will be some resistance and Putin will bomb Kiev. Putin can’t afford to allow the new Kiev govt to have elections and gain legitimacy. He has to move now.
You can see the slavophilies drooling in anticipation of such events in this very thread.
Thank you for demonstrating so eloquently how you are acting in solidarity with the murderous hate speech and false propaganda of the Russian war criminals.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.