Russians abuse gas monopoly

Russia is planning a customs union with Ukraine, Belarus and Kazakhstan. With its natural gas monopolist Gazprom, Moscow will use this plan to consolidate its hegemony, warns the conservative daily Die Welt: "Russia is keen to redirect the 20 billion cubic meters of gas shipped to the EU each year from the pipeline passing through Ukraine to the Baltic pipeline. That would cut the fees accruing to the transit country by a good fifth, hundreds of millions of dollars. ... Kiev is currently negotiating a reduction in gas prices with Moscow. Gazprom's answer: only if you join the customs union. ... With the first public threat to redirect gas shipments, two illusions have been dashed. The first: that Russia has learned to treat its smaller neighbours with as much respect as Germany shows its own. The second illusion seemed at times even more believable than the first: purely in terms of numbers the new gas pipelines could not be abused to exert pressure, because the demand guaranteed full pipelines for decades to come."

» full article (external link, German)
More from the press review on the subject » International Relations, » Economic Policy, » Ukraine, » Russia, » Belarus
All available articles from » Gerhard Gnauck

» To the complete press review of Tuesday, June 14, 2011