 Kiev, Moscow ink 2nd deal to ensure supplies
(China Daily)
Updated: 2009-01-13 07:37
Russia and Ukraine signed a deal yesterday for a second time to help secure the resumption of Russian gas supplies to Europe, cut off for nearly a week in freezing temperatures. Earlier yesterday Ukraine removed additions to the deal struck over the weekend to resolve the latest row holding up the deployment of monitors to check Russian gas flowing across Ukraine to Europe. Russia has accused Ukraine of siphoning off gas to make up for losses it has suffered since Moscow turned off the tap on Jan 1 in a dispute over gas prices. Ukraine denies the charge. "The document has been finally signed," Alexander Medvedev, deputy chief executive of Russia's state gas export monopoly Gazprom told a news conference in Brussels. The EU's energy commissioner, Andris Piebalgs, told reporters the 27-nation bloc believed supplies could start at 0700 GMT today. "Russia has announced all conditions have been met and we expect now that gas will be flowing in the morning," Piebalgs told reporters. Gazprom and Ukraine have said it will take at least 36 hours before gas reaches EU borders after flows resume. The gas row is yet another power-play between the neighbors, whose relations have been strained since Ukraine elected pro-Western leaders after the "orange revolution" in 2004 and tried to shrug off Russia's influence. The EU, which backed Ukraine in a similar dispute in 2006, has tried to steer a neutral course between the two, and helped broker the deal over the weekend to allow monitors on Ukrainian territory. But some diplomats have criticized both for holding the Union which gets a fifth of all its gas supplies from pipelines that run from Russia across Ukraine, to ransom. "It is unbearable that Russia and Ukraine carry out their conflict in the middle of a grim cold winter on Europe's back," German economics secretary, Peter Hintze, said in Brussels. "We need a mechanism so we can act faster in future crises." Russia and Ukraine traded blame for the weekend's false-start. Moscow has accused the Kiev authorities of being corrupt and inept. Ukraine said yesterday Russia was delaying the settlement because it had insufficient gas supplies. "The Russian Federation and Gazprom do not have sufficient gas for transport to European consumers and, as a result of this, they are dragging out the settlement of the gas problem with Ukraine," said Bohdan Sokolovski, energy envoy for Ukraine's president. Eastern Europe has been badly hit by the gas shutdown, with several countries forced to look to alternative means of power or to use reserves. Slovakia was on the brink of a power blackout after a fire forced the partial shutdown of a coal power plant, news agency SITA quoted Economy Minister Lubomir Jahnatek as saying. Bratislava declared a state of emergency last week after Russian gas stopped arriving, and the government has said it must put an old nuclear power plant into operation to maintain the stability of the entire electricity grid. Agencies
(China Daily 01/13/2009 page12) |
