-None-: Russia, Ukraine in fresh row over natural gas supplies

by Emil Sanamyan

Published: Friday January 09, 2009

Sketch of Gazprom tower planned for St. Petersburg, Russia.

Washington - Charging Ukraine with siphoning off supplies transited through the country to European markets and leaving bills unpaid, the Russian government began to cut off supplies to the former Soviet republic.

The new dispute became public just days after Ukraine signed a charter on strategic partnership with the United States (see this page in the January 3 Armenian Reporter).

Meanwhile, Georgia was due to sign a similar agreement on January 9. Russian officials already criticized Tbilisi for halting the transit pipeline that supplies the breakaway republic of South Ossetia.

While Georgia began to switch to Azerbaijan-supplied gas, it still relies on Russian supplies. A cut in Russian supplies to Georgia would also threaten Armenia, which has relied on its gas reservoir to ride out past interruptions.

By January 7, countries without gas reservoirs or alternative sources of the fuel, including Bosnia, Serbia, and Bulgaria, began to experience heating shortages. Other large recipients of Russian gas, including Germany and Turkey, were not immediately affected as Russia increased supplies to them via pipelines that bypass Ukraine.

European Union leaders met and demanded that Russia and Ukraine resolve their disputes to allow the resumption of supplies; Gazprom said on January 8 that it would resume supplies once international observers are deployed to monitor the supplies.