Word: russian
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...reserves cover about 25% of its annual gas consumption - but when gas deliveries to Germany abruptly stopped this week, Merkel went into action to try to keep the political conflict between Russia and Ukraine from escalating and to ensure the long-term security of gas supplies. She called Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin and his Ukranian counterpart Yulia Tymoshenko on Wednesday, persuading them to allow European experts to help resolve the conflict...
...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...
...Liberti says Putin's use of energy as a political tool - and his recent defiance of Europe and the rest of the world in Russia's military clash with Georgia - may signal that the Russian leader believes he risks little more than short-term trouble in making internationally unpopular moves that serve his interests. Liberti also suggests that the winter freeze and the assumption of the E.U. presidency by the Czech Republic, an ex-Soviet satellite, may have added to Putin's motivations. "Putin is reminding Europe [that] Russia's a force to be reckoned with, and that its position...
...pictures of the fashions of Russian czars...