Word: gas
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: all
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
...uneasy compromise could mean an end to the latest Russia-Europe gas spat, and relief for the millions of people across vast swathes of Europe who have spent this week shivering. The deal was worked out Thursday after a confusing mesh of negotiations in Brussels, Prague, Kiev and Moscow. E.U. inspectors have now arrived in the Ukraine to assuage Russia that Kiev is not surreptitiously siphoning off gas from the pipeline transiting the country, and Moscow has pledged to turn the gas taps back on as soon as the observers start work in monitoring the gas flow at Ukrainian pumping...
...Moscow cut its supply of gas to Ukraine last week following a dispute over payment. At least 18 European countries who buy Russian gas and have it piped through Ukraine saw their supplies completely or partially cut as a result. Some governments declared states of emergency and ordered factories and schools to close, while millions of people struggled to cope in freezing temperatures. (See pictures of Russia celebrating Victory...
...largest aid donor. Ukraine is facing a financial meltdown, and recently asked for a $16.4 billion International Monetary Fund bailout. Gazprom, owing around $60 billion and seriously short of cash, currently has storage reservoirs so full that it risked having to burn off some of its surplus if the gas was not pumped out soon...
...sides are still unhappy. Putin has portrayed Ukraine as a flaky transit country, while Ukrainians say Russia is simply a bully. Over the next few weeks, Moscow and Kiev still have to agree on a price for Russian gas deliveries, subsidized since Soviet times. And even if that happens, there's no guarantee this same dispute will not flare up again in the coming months, as it regularly has over the past few years...
...cuts on the line, Republicans and Democrats have squared off, arguing whether raising taxes or reducing welfare programs is the best way to go. In December the Democrats engineered a plan that could bypass the Republican vote and, with a combination of spending cuts and tax hikes on sales, gas and income, melt the deficit by $18 billion. However, this week Schwarzenegger rejected the plan, saying his demands, like limiting environmental protections on public-works construction, were not met, and the Republicans filed a suit in state appeals court in an effort to block this sort of majority-vote proposal...