Russia gas deal collapses

Russia gas deal collapses

www.google.com

MOSCOW (AFP) — An EU-brokered accord on terms for Russia to resume gas supply to Europe collapsed when Russia accused Ukraine of secretly altering the deal and declared it null and void.

"I am ordering the government not to accept the document signed yesterday," Russian President Dmitry Medvedev said in televised remarks.

"We are obliged to consider the document signed as null and void."

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Related AboveTopSecret.com Discussion Threads:
Russia cuts off gas to Ukraine
States of emergency declared across Europe due to Russian Gas halt.

This doesn't bode well. Usually when Russia cuts the gas
off to the Ukraine they get their act together.

Did they really expect to get away with altering the accord?
This seems more like a problem on Ukraine's end than Russia.
What happens now? How long will the Ukraine keep this up?

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[edit on 11/1/2009 by Mirthful Me]

I can see this dragging out quite a while. This has the potential to escalate tensions in the region, that's for sure.

I would say neither country is to blame more than the other in this situation. Ukraine was trying to gain an upper hand in the deal, but Russia was more than happy that it happened. Any excuse to harm Ukraine is a good one in Russia's mind, especially since the 2008 South Ossetia War when Ukraine assisted Georgia.

There's no doubt in my mind that Russia is upset with Ukraine's "defiance", so to speak. Russia has always been a very egotistical nation, so to see a former satellite speak so loudly out of turn as Ukraine has surely steps on a few nerves in Moscow.

Having said that, Ukraine is egotistical too. That is why I say this has the potential to drag out a while and increase tensions. I don't think either side is going to give in to the other until the consequences of this stand off become too much to bear. It would be a sign of weakness to the other party, and that simply is an unacceptable cost to pay for both to resolve this.

Unfortunately for Europe, this really couldn't have come at a worse time given the weather over there right now.

Just in: The gas supplies will be restarted tomorrow.


The Russian and Ukrainian delegations announced that the gas supplies could be restarted tomorrow




Bulgaria has already threatened to restart an "unsafe" nuclear reactor. Now, Slovakia wants to restart a nuclear reactor as well.


Slovakia Determined to Reopen Nuclear Plant




It's very cold in Europe...


Slovenia with record low temperature -49

reply to post by Hellmutt


WOW, -49°C !
For my fellow American friends, that's -56°F.
I've never even seen snow, let alone an environment that cold.
That's pretty unimaginable to me. No wonder both Bulgaria and Slovakia
are risking the reactivation of unsafe nuclear plants.

Good news that gas supplies will resume though.

[edit on 1/12/09 by aecreate]

Nope... still no gas. Ukraine is causing problems again...

Ukraine refuses to transport Russian gas to EU

Gazprom says the international observers confirmed that Kiev has made it impossible for Russia to export gas to its European consumers.

The Ukraine is playing a dangerous card. Both the EU and Russia will eventually work out some other deal and bypass the Ukraine altogether and leave them out in the cold.

Then where will they be?

The Ukraine is playing a very unpleasant game and to tell you the truth, its not fooling anybody.

The victims here are not so much as the Russian gas companys but the European citizenry.

What the Ukrainians actually want is for the EU to underwrite their debts effectively guaranteeing their gas supply free of (retrospective) charge.

The undermining that the Ukrainian government is currently using as an excuse for self victimisation was their own doing. Previously their own high court (at the behest of the energy minister) actually ruled it illegal for the country's major gas supplier to transport gas from Russia at the agreed levels.

(I had already started a thread about this but i suppose that the words employed were too complex or something..

With regards to the completely half arsed reasoning proposed that its all russias fault because they changed the 'routing' of the gas pipelines.. well, look at a map.

There are no other routes for that gas to take. It ALL goes through the Ukraine and Russia's involvement ends at the border.