Deprived of gas and powerless

For the daily Der Standard, the gas dispute between Russia and Ukraine is a struggle for zones of influence: "It may seem surreal that almost 20 years after the fall of the Berlin Wall, Central and Eastern European leaders still travel to Moscow with their pleas. ... Europe's dependence on Russian gas and Ukrainian transit routes has led both sides to play out a power game over the EU. It is pure chutzpah when Putin now says that Kiev is blackmailing Europe. Moscow is doing exactly the same - with the purely accidental result that those Westerners who dispute his 'natural' zone of indluence are being given a lesson similar to Georgia's, this time with gas instead of tanks."

» more information (external link, German)
More from the press review on the subject » International Relations, » Security Policy / Crises / War, » Energy, » Ukraine, » Russia, » Europe
All available articles from » Josef Kirchengast

» To the complete press review of Thursday, January 15, 2009