announcement gas giant gazprom It is no accident that cut off gas to Europe on Friday night: just hours ago, the G7 announced that it had set a ceiling on the price of Russian oil to limit the Kremlin’s revenue from overseas sales. Moscow says between the lines that they take it wherever they give it. Use of Russian energy resources pressure measurement Since the Russian military was deployed in Ukraine, accession to the European Union has been happening throughout this year.
The Eurasian country generates huge revenues from its hydrocarbons, mostly from the Arctic and Caspian Sea. According to data from the World Trade Organization, about 60% of exports in 2019 were fuels and other mining products, including oil and gas. The combination of large hydrocarbon reserves and high European dependence is the Kremlin’s big card to put pressure on Europe, just as it is currently doing with the EU. 29% of oil, 43% of gas and 54% of coal imported to EU countries come from the Eurasian giant. In all three cases, Russia is the largest supplier, respectively. United States of America (9%) and Norway (twenty one%).
As an official excuse to cut gas supplies, Gazprom said on Saturday that Siemens is ready to repair and continue operating the Nord Stream 1 pipeline, but there are no operators to run the business. Siemens responded immediately and rejected such excesses, assuring that they did not ask him to do the work.
this is not the first That Russian gas was used by Moscow as a missile weapon. One of the most recent examples is Moldova, which saw the threat of turning off the gas tap at the end of 2021, during the harshest time of winter (temperatures in the country can reach -7º at that time of year). to arrive. At the prices before the new agreement, there were already citizens. they could not payand their option was to borrow money in the winter to pay for the gas. in summer or use firewood. The rationale for Gazprom, which has a monopoly on Moldovan supply, is in dispute with Moldovan officials who want to keep Moldova. Reasonable price. Finally, a new agreement was signed in November allowing Chisinau to continue buying hydrocarbons at a higher price, without other concessions of a nature unrelated to gas. The country is one of the poorest countries in Europe and the cost of this increase most vulnerable layers who are currently struggling to meet the basic needs of Moldovan society.
aim Dionis CensusThe political analyst of the Moldovan Expert Group think tank said, “The Moldovan government insisted that it did not accept any political costs (for this agreement), but it was added to the protocol. new contract contains gas cooperation aspects dual economy beyond the energy field”. he adds”Russia wants a cooperation platform with Moldova so as not to overlook it. It became very clear in Moscow (before it was accepted as an EU candidate) that the country was deepening its dialogue with the EU”.
gas war in ukraine
If you look a little further back in time, Ukraine itself was suffering from the problem of running out of gas in the middle of winter. Between 2000 and 2010, the so-called “gas wars”, at which time Russia stopped its gas supply. The first of these began on January 1, 2006. Pressure in gas pipelines began to drop and gas supplies were affected in other countries such as France, Germany, Slovakia and Hungary. On January 4, an agreement was finally signed. On this occasion, the lack of agreement on the gas price was the trigger, but there were also political conflicts in the background between the Kremlin and the government of Viktor Yushchenko, which wanted to get closer to Brussels at Moscow’s expense. . In fact, twice more (early 2008 and the end of the same year), Gazprom suspended supplies to Kiev. in the crossfire to other euro countries