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The intermediary

After a two-week halt in supplies, in mid-January Russian gas started flowing through Ukrainian pipelines again. How does the Ukrainian press evaluate the crisis?

The gas dispute between Russia and Ukraine triggered a debate in the Ukrainian press about the country's relations with Europe and with its neighbouring countries. Russia's strategy during the crisis was also analysed. Communication was seen as one of Russia's most effective instruments in the gas dispute: Gazprom and Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin deliberately aimed to tarnish the image of their Ukrainian partner Naftogaz and the Ukrainian political leadership. Writing on the subject on 19 January 2009, the independent online newspaper Ukrainska pravda arrived at the conclusion that Gazprom must have prepared thoroughly for the energy dispute with Ukraine. With reference to Gazprom's US website www.gazpromukrainefacts.com the newspaper wrote: "Moscow did everything in its power to provoke the conflict - there is no other explanation for the way it built up information to be used as a weapon."

A Russian show of strength

The Ukrainian media accused Russia of orchestrating targeted smear campaigns. "Pinning its hopes on extensive information resources and numerous 'fifth columns' [politicians and business people loyal to Russia; a term for groups who work together with opponents of their own state] in the world of Ukrainian politics, the Russian side apparently expected not only to discredit [President Victor] Yushchenko but also to create an emotional backdrop for launching a process that would remove him from office", the independent weekly Dzerkalo Tyzhnia concluded on 17 January 2009.

Photo: photocase/seraph

It surmised that by cutting off gas supplies Russia had intended to show Ukraine and also the EU who was boss: "So far Russia has demonstrated its determination to stipulate a political price for gas for those countries it is friendly with and those it is less friendly with. But in future it could even refuse to supply gas to countries whose policies it dislikes."

Writing on 17 January 2009 in the daily Den, the Ukrainian political scientist Andriy Yermolayev examined the political role the two states play for Europe's energy security: "In the past few years the governments in Kiev and Moscow chose conflicting strategies. ... Russia laid claim to an energy monopoly while Ukraine tried to implement a policy of 'transit egoism' under these conditions. ... These strategies led to the loss of the partnership formula." There is a reason for the conflicts over gas, Yermolayev wrote, "for the leading elites in Kiev and Moscow stand in a specific relationship to each other. This issue without doubt affects Europe's energy security, and this is why they [the Europeans] criticise this policy and insist that both elites recognise each other as being of equal value."

Ukraine's mistakes

Reflecting in the weekly Dzerkalo Tyzhnia on 17 January on the value of political independence from Russia and the mistakes of the political leadership in Kiev, Juliya Mostova wrote: "Wasn't it clear to the Orange leadership from the very beginning that only a country that pays the 'market price' for its gas could have an independent domestic and foreign policy? Didn't they realise that [the issues of] Nato membership, the trauma of the Holodomor [the famine of 1932-33], support for Georgia and calls for the Black Sea Fleet to withdraw within the agreed time limit can no doubt be legitimate aspects of the policy of a sovereign Ukrainian state, but that under such circumstances the Ukrainian government can hardly expect Russia, whose interests are affected by these policies, to give it a discount on the price of gas."

Commentators hail the elimination of the middlemen and the control they gave Russia over the Ukrainian gas market as a victory for Ukraine. The government negotiations were seen as positive, above all as regards the agreed European gas prices. On 19 January, 2008, the online newspaper Glavred wrote: "To dispense with the middlemen and make the transition to European gas prices is no more and no less than to lay claim to new European rules in an area that from the point of view of the EU and Nato is of crucial importance for a European country." But will the country manage to restore its reputation as an important transit country for gas now that the crisis has ended?

Oksana Kurylas

Oksana Kurylas was born in Lviv in 1975. She works as a freelance journalist and translator in Lviv and is an n-ost correspondent in Ukraine.
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