How long before the return to USSR tatics

Let's see, Putin invaded Georgia and is now going to deny fuel to Ukraine all to keep NATO from former Soviet countries. Is anyone suprised?

Russia gas disruption spreads to Czechs
By Yuri Kulikov and Tanya Mosolova Yuri Kulikov And Tanya Mosolova
Sun Jan 4, 9:54 am ET

KIEV/MOSCOW (Reuters) – Ukraine and Russia blamed each other for disrupting gas flows to Europe Sunday and the reductions in supplies caused by their dispute spread to the Czech Republic and Turkey.

Russian natural gas supplies dropped by five percent to the Czech Republic, the latest casualty in the stand-off which began when Russia cut off the gas to Ukraine on New Year's day in a dispute over debts and pricing.

"It is the first signal of the Russia-Ukraine crisis in the Czech Republic," said a spokesman for gas importer RWE Transgas.

Germany, Europe's biggest economy, said gas was flowing in as normal. EU energy firms said there would be no effect on their customers as long as the disruptions did not last so long that reserves ran low. Analysts say if it drags on for weeks it will make things tough in the EU.

Earlier Turkey also reported a fall in supplies, joining Poland, Hungary, Romania and Bulgaria, which had already said they were affected.

Russia -- long at odds with its neighbor over its ambition to join NATO -- has accused Kiev of stealing gas intended for Europe, but Ukraine hit back by alleging Moscow was cutting flows by more than half through a key export pipeline.

"Naftogaz considers the actions of Gazprom as threatening the energy security of Ukraine and Europe, which could bring unpredictable consequences for the entire gas transit system of Europe," Ukraine's state energy company said in a statement.

Ukraine's economy is vulnerable to a prolonged dispute with Russia. A presidential aide said the economy was set to contract 3 to 5 percent this year, leaving it little room to accept the higher prices Russia is demanding.

source

Europe begins to feel gas pipeline pinch
By Fred Weir Fred Weir Tue Jan 6, 3:00 am ET
Moscow – Thermometers are plunging across Europe, and so is the pressure in the natural-gas pipelines connecting the continent with its key supplier, Russia.

But no one is pushing the panic button yet. The five-day-old gas war between Moscow and Kiev appears worse than in past years, aggravated by Ukraine's deepening financial and political crises and Russia's urgent need to refloat its floundering state budget by raising gas prices. Europe, watching closely, has sufficient gas reserves to see it through any short-term crisis and has officially declined to take sides.

The increasingly acerbic dispute, which has seen Russia's state gas monopoly Gazprom accuse its Ukrainian counterpart of "stealing" gas and acting to damage the pipeline that transports 80 percent of Russia's gas exports to Europe, may be doing permanent harm to Moscow's relations with its most important ex-Soviet neighbor. It has also reignited a European debate about how to secure energy supplies amid deepening instability in the resource-rich former Soviet lands to the east.

"When there are problems on these transit routes, this brings insecurity to the energy markets. I think Brussels's strategy [to seek alternative energy routes for Russian gas] is right, but we also see that it can cause a lot of difficulties," says Claudia Kempfert, an energy expert at the German Institute for Economic Research in Munich. "At the end of the day, [Europe] still has a huge dependency on Russian energy, and this is a little bit dangerous."

Russia's relations with Ukraine have been deteriorating since the pro-democracy "Orange Revolution" brought Ukrainian President Viktor Yushchenko to power four years ago, pledging to bring the nation of 50 million into the NATO security alliance and draw it closer to the European Union. Soon after, Russia began demanding that Ukraine begin paying world market prices for its formerly subsidized Russian oil and gas and, to drive the point home, first shut down the pipeline on New Year's Day 2006. Last year, Ukraine paid on average $180 per thousand cubic meters of Russian gas, far below European rates, and Gazprom is demanding that it pay $418 for the same amount in the yet-to-be-concluded 2009 contract.

more

Gas-starved EU nations seek end to energy crisis
By MANSUR MIROVALEV, Associated Press Writer Mansur Mirovalev, Associated Press Writer
5 mins ago

MOSCOW – The leaders of several gas-starved European nations traveled to Ukraine and Russia on Wednesday, pressing them to restore supplies as the EU threatened both with legal action for halting energy deliveries in the midst of winter.

But Ukraine's natural gas company said for a second straight day it would not send Russian gas along to Europe. It claimed that Russia's gas monopoly Gazprom was trying to force it to cut service to parts of Ukraine in order to send the gas along.

For his part, Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin accused Ukraine of holding European nations hostage and insisted the EU should not accept Ukraine's claims. He spoke as met with the prime ministers of Slovakia, Bulgaria and Moldova at his residence outside Moscow.

"No matter what papers others provide, I'll burn them in the oven," he told the visitors. "We opened the tap, and are ready to supply gas, but on the other side, the tap is closed.

"Nobody, no transit country, has the right to use its transit location to take other customers hostage," Putin declared.

Slovakian Prime Minister Robert Fico said "Ukraine is losing the trust of European partners because of its behavior."

"The most unpleasant part is that millions of Europeans feel like hostages and are truly suffering," added Bulgaria's Sergei Stanishev.

With no end to the politically charged dispute in sight — despite a weekend agreement that sent teams of EU monitors out to pumping stations to keep tabs on the gas flows — the EU was fed up.

European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso warned Gazprom and Naftogaz, Ukraine's state-run gas company, that he will urge European energy companies to sue them unless they move quickly to restore gas supplies.

"If the agreement is not honored, it means that Russia and Ukraine can no longer be considered reliable partners for the European Union in matters of energy supply," Barroso told the European Parliament.

source

How much of this is Russia worried about money and how much is Russia intimidating the Ukraine?

I'll post something, just so Aaron doesn't have to mumble at himself forever.

There once was a young lady from Norway
Who hung by her heels in the doorway
She said to her man
Who sat on the Divan
"Look Dear, I found one more way!"

I don't care if you post or not. 6 months from now when this leads too Putin sending in troops, I can go back and say I saw it coming.

It's coming.

Aaron,

I don't know what to say. I think it's been very clear for a number of years what Putin's intentions are.

bmd wrote:I'll post something, just so Aaron doesn't have to mumble at himself forever.

Aaron wrote:I don't care if you post or not. 6 months from now when this leads too Putin sending in troops, I can go back and say I saw it coming.

It's coming.

I was wrong. Putin didn't have to send in troops. He out diplomated the US by using the gas he had been withholding, which someone mentioned earlier, to get what he wanted. And not only does he keep us out of the Ukraine, he’s hurt us in Afghanistan as well.

And here we were told that all would be right in the world once “The One” took over. So when's the diplomacy start?

Thus, last week, some praise from high-level Russian officials for Obama Administration initiatives was followed by what the New York Times called "the geopolitical equivalent of a punch in the nose." Russia finally succeeded in bribing neighboring Kyrgyzstan - with $2 billion in easy-term loans, $450 million in subsidies, and the write-off of a $180 million debt - to kick out a U.S. air base essential to American operations in Afghanistan (a high priority for Obama). Adding insult to injury, Moscow maintained with a straight face that the timing of the aid package and the announced closure of the Manas Air Base was entirely coincidental, with no Russian pressure involved. In other words, a punch in the nose followed by the smirking assertion that your hands were in your pockets the entire time.

source