Putin: Ukraine Will Have to Pay In Advance For Russian Gas
Source: AP/ Huff Post
MOSCOW (AP) Russia has ratcheted up pressure on Ukraine, with President Vladimir Putin saying in a letter released Thursday that it only will deliver gas to its struggling neighbor next month if it pays in advance.
Putin first warned of the move in April in a letter to European leaders whose nations are customers of Russian state-controlled Gazprom natural gas giant. He said that Moscow would switch to pre-paid deliveries if Ukraine, which serves as a major conduit for Russian gas supplies to Europe, failed to start settling its mounting gas debt.
In the second letter released by the Kremlin Thursday, Putin said that a meeting involving Russian, Ukrainian and the European Union officials has failed to settle the issue. He said that Ukraine's gas debt to Russia has kept rising and reached $3.5 billion, even though Ukraine has received $3.2 billion bailout from the International Monetary Fund.
"Given the circumstances, the Russian company has issued an advance invoice for gas deliveries to Ukraine, which is completely in accordance with the contract, and after June 1 gas deliveries will be limited to the amount prepaid by the Ukrainian company," Putin said in the letter.
Read more: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/05/15/putin-ukraine-gas_n_5330251.html
As the Czar of a militarized giant dictatorship turns the screws on a small country, invading it piecemeal.
Response to uhnope (Original post)
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Bosonic
(3,746 posts)BRATISLAVA, May 15 (Reuters) - Russian President Vladimir Putin has informed multiple European states that gas supplies to Europe through Ukraine may be halted as of June 1 if Kiev does not pay its bills, Slovak Prime Minister Robert Fico said on Thursday.
Fico, speaking to reporters after meeting NATO Secretary General Anders Fogh Rasmussen, said the most pressing threat facing Slovakia was the question of deliveries from Russia that pass through Ukraine.
"Today, multiple member states including Slovakia were informed by President Putin that as of June 1, if Ukraine does not pay for supplied gas, it will not be supplied to the European territory," Fico said. "It is a serious threat to the energy security of Slovakia."
Putin's declaration, released by the Kremlin on Thursday, said there was a problem with Ukraine's debt for gas and insufficient levels of storage in Ukraine, and that over the past month there has been no movement on resolving the issue.
http://www.trust.org/item/20140515181820-9kewa
uhnope
(6,419 posts)Putin's puppet government in Ukraine agreed to the "debt" and now that the puppet government has been overthrown the west will end up paying Russia.
Just like the Soviets before 1989 and the Russian gov after 1989, directing all money streams directly into their own pockets. Remember Sergei Magnitsky.
Bosonic
(3,746 posts)Pay Putin short-term if need be, make long term plans to shut Russia out.
Let Russia scramble to sell to China in an increasingly renewable energy world.
dipsydoodle
(42,239 posts)aka that's life so deal with it.
pampango
(24,692 posts)Ukraine owes Russia billions for past gas. It owes the West billions in debt. Both want to be paid. Life will be very difficult whether they get IMF loans, Russia is paid its gas debt and the gas keeps flowing or they don't get IMF loan and the gas is cut off. Sounds like austerity is coming from one direction or the other or both - in the very near future.
I hope their long term future is a more positive on, because short term it does not look good.
Nihil
(13,508 posts)It's not as if Ukraine are asking for "a little credit to tide them over until next pay day",
they already owe Russia billions for deliveries that have been made and consumed.
Yet they seem to think that this can go on forever?
That spectacular nullity, outgoing European Commission (EC) President Jose Manuel Barroso, although agreeing a dialogue is necessary, answered that Gazprom's new rule of only allowing gas to flow to Ukraine if paid in advance was "worrying". As if any European energy major would gladly dismiss unpaid bills.
Ukraine: The Waiting Game
By Pepe Escobar
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article38487.htm
independentpiney
(1,510 posts)Your tired hyperbole of a comment doesn't even warrant a response.
Warren Stupidity
(48,181 posts)Funny thing that. Of course the other part of the IMF bailout is that it is coming with the usual strings forcing austerity on Ukraine. The new government in Kiev is going to have an awful year.
dipsydoodle
(42,239 posts)The EU energy minister haa already said that the gas debt MUST be cleared
By and and large its say hello to your new owners - mugs.
dipsydoodle
(42,239 posts)KIEV, May 15 (RIA Novosti) Ukraines energy ministry has demanded that Russia hand over two billion cubic meters of gas stored at an underground facility in Crimea, which it said belongs to the state-run Ukrainian gas major Naftogaz.
In the territory of Crimean peninsula ... there are two billion cubic meters in the storage of Chernomornaftogaz, that are an economic property of Naftogaz, Ukrainian Deputy Energy Minister Ihor Didenko said Thursday.
Didenko proposed Russian energy giant Gazprom transfer the gas to another facility in mainland Ukraine.
The demand comes despite Naftogaz having outstanding $3.5 billion debts for Russian gas, which Kiev refuses to pay with gas prices set at $485 per thousand cubic meters. On April 1, the price of Russian gas for Ukraine rose to $485 per thousand cubic meters from $268.50, as Russia withdrew two major discounts.
http://en.ria.ru/world/20140515/189846200/Kiev-Demands-Return-of-2Bln-Cubic-Meters-of-Russian-Gas-Left-in.html
Ah ha - the old we've not paid for it but its ours scam . No doubt a Gazprom spokes person said "fuckofski"
Same link :
On Wednesday, it said there was a risk that the Ukrainian state-run gas company could fail to fulfill its commitments on gas transit, siphoning off gas destined for European consumers.
Yes they've been suspected / accused of weeding in the past.