Word: russia
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...farce played out in Brussels, Czech Prime Minister Mirek Topolanek - the Czech Republic currently holds the E.U. presidency - and German Chancellor Angela Merkel were phoning Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin, warning him that Gazprom and Russia faced the loss of reputation and revenues as Western customers looked elsewhere. The E.U. efforts were almost all aimed at the Russians rather than the Ukrainians. They also spoke with Ukrainian officials. It helps that the E.U. is Ukraine's largest aid donor. Ukraine is facing a financial meltdown, and recently asked for a $16.4 billion International Monetary Fund bailout. Gazprom, owing around...
...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...
...Europe depends on Russia for about a quarter of its total gas supplies. Some 80% of these are pumped via Ukraine, which also counts on hefty transit fees. The E.U. sees this latest episode as further proof that it needs to diversify its energy, something that it must do anyway if it is to meet its ambitious climate-change targets...
...director of the London-based Centre for European Reform (CER) think tank. "They also need to reinforce their efforts to achieve their 20% energy savings target and explore alternative sources of power, namely renewables and nuclear. If the gas standoff reminds the Europeans of the importance of such measures, Russia and Ukraine will have done the E.U. a favor." Even if that favor was rather chilly...
...Read about Russia's Gazprom Diplomacy...