Energy Politics: Going in circles

Gas payments, gas price, and the possibility of another gas shut off  have dominated discussions between  Russia and Ukraine this year, with President Yushchenko using it as means to criticizes the prime minister, Tymoshenko. His open letter to Medvedev is another illustration that this issue will not fade away between the president and prime minister.
In an open letter to the Kremlin leader, text of which was published on his website, Yushchenko said: "Keeping the contracts unchanged ... will create potential threats specifically to the reliability of supplies of gas to Ukraine and its transit to other European states.
"It is obvious that such a development of events is not welcome either for Ukraine or for Russia and the European Union," he said.
The president has persistently sought a change in the agreement since it was signed in January 2009.  Russia hasn't taken the bait this time, as reported in Bloomberg, Tymoshenko and Putin met in Yalta today where Russia waived gas penalties for Ukraine.
at Thursday, November 19, 2009

0 comments:

Post a Comment