Word: moscow
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Dates: during 2000-2009
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...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...
...pumping services for Gazprom's clients in Europe. Gazprom wants to raise the price to $450 and also fine Ukraine's national gas company, Naftogaz, for allegedly expropriating millions of cubic meters of gas that Russia pumped through Ukraine to European clients. Naftogaz denies the diversion claims and says Moscow is using the gas issue as it has in previous years: to punish Ukraine for seeking membership in NATO and the European Union. (See pictures of Russia celebrating Victory...
...Moscow began turning off the gas to Ukraine's pipes on Jan. 1, and by Tuesday it had reduced the supply to one-fifth its normal flow. On Wednesday, it cut the supply entirely. By then, Austria, Hungary, Serbia, Greece, Croatia and Bosnia all reported a virtual shutoff in gas deliveries, and a resulting shortage in homes and businesses. So did Bulgaria, where the chill of the Russian gas cut was so swift - and where reserves are so low - that officials said they would consider restarting an unused nuclear power plant to compensate...
...with Europe in the grip of an unusual cold snap, political leaders are pressuring Moscow and Ukrainian capital Kiev to end the standoff and get the gas flowing again. Officials from the Czech Republic, which currently holds the presidency of the European Union and was one of the first nations affected by the gas pinch, denounced the Russian move as "absolutely unacceptable" and demanded that the two sides strike "an accord within the week...
...Naftogaz and Gazprom officials are set to hold talks in Moscow on Thursday, but a solution is far from guaranteed. Russian leader Vladimir Putin has a history of exploiting his nation's vast energy supplies as a political weapon. The dive in energy prices over the past six months has hurt Russia, but it has not killed Moscow's desire to be a regional player. "With both energy markets tanking and Russia's economy hit extremely hard by the global recession, Putin probably feels he has much to gain by trying to jack up gas prices and [get] badly needed...