It would appear that even a former KGB spy (who clearly suffers from the small man’s complex) is capable of learning that if you want to be respected in todays world, you cannot behave like a thug and threaten to cut off your neighbours heating supplies in the middle of winter. Looks like Putin’s learning time is now reduced to about three days.
I wonder if it was Herr Schroeder whispering in his right ear that times have changed, that caused him to stop putting the screws to the Ukraine?
Sauron
By: Arabella-Cox - 7th January 2006 at 06:44
When you get right down to it why should the Ukraine be an enemy of Russia because it is a friend of the USA?
They aren’t cutting them off completely… no pipes are being ripped up. They are just charging them something closer to full price for something they are selling them.
Regarding the bypassing of the Ukraine with a gas pipeline, it is nothing the US and Georgia aren’t trying to do…
By: Phil Foster - 6th January 2006 at 22:21
Yes, you are right. Russia should supply cheap energy to Europe even when Europe Turns away from Russia and looks to the US for leadership and partnership. Or perhaps not.
Ukraine is turning away from Russia towards the West. Why should Russia treat Ukraine as a special friend if the Ukraine turns its back on that friendship?
Alternatively a country could try to balance its political relationships rather than being obliged to choose one over the other. When you get right down to it why should the Ukraine be an enemy of Russia because it is a friend of the USA?
Phil 🙂
By: Arabella-Cox - 6th January 2006 at 03:12
From THE TIMES http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article…970578,00.html
Schröder feels heat over Gazprom
By Bronwen Maddox
GERHARD SCHRÖDER has got off lightly so far for a breathtakingly disreputable choice of employer. Perhaps not for much longer, though, given the heat rising in Poland, the US and Germany’s own media.
The former German Chancellor surely hoped that in taking up the post of chairman of an arm of Gazprom he could make the most of his friendship with Russia’s President Putin and indulge his warm pursuit of a German-Russian alliance, all in a low-key way.
He won’t escape the spotlight now, for the worst of reasons.
Less than a month after he took the job, the state-owned Gazprom (and Putin too) have become intercontinental villains, threatening to turn off lights across Europe.
As supervisory chairman of the German-Russian consortium building the North European Gas Pipeline, Schröder will be leading a project which was always controversial but is ten times so now after Russia’s threats to cut off Ukraine’s gas.
The speed with which he took the post, just weeks after losing the Chancellorship, has reopened uneasy questions about why he was so eager to court Russia when in office.
The plan to run a pipeline to Germany (and perhaps on to Britain) through the Baltic Sea, bypassing Poland, Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia, was always contentious.
The sea route deliberately bypassed the former Soviet countries, even though it was more expensive. Russia, annoyed at their courtship of the European Union and the US, at their wariness of Moscow and delight in their independence, did not want to be beholden on them for transit. Germany conspired in the plan, to Poland’s fury. Poland was right to argue that the pipeline made its own gas supplies from Russia vulnerable, and made it susceptible to pressure from Moscow.
Russia would no longer be restrained in its dealings with Warsaw by its need for Poland to carry gas through to Western Europe.
In the past few years since the pipeline was agreed, Poland’s fears might have seemed abstract. Since Russia’s threats to Ukraine, they can’t.
You might say that Tony Blair, in angling for the pipeline to continue to Britain, was complicit too. But that would be a little harsh.
His courtship of Putin (rushing to be the first European leader to visit the President-elect) has never been one of the most admirable parts of his foreign policy. He has often seemed to glide too blithely over the signs of Putin’s authoritarianism.
But the route of the pipeline after it had arrived in Germany — whether it continued to Nordic countries, or Britain, or both — was always secondary.
The US press has been scathing of Schröder’s move. The Washington Post asked whether the Gazprom job was his reward for having “thwarted attempts to put unified Western pressure on Russia” over Chechnya. Now the German press is catching up in vitriol.
The mass circulation Bild newspaper reckons that Herr Schröder will be earning €1 million a year. The opposition says that the money won’t make him happy and is calling for him to step down.
A fortnight ago he could have ignored them with ease. But that was before his new sponsor made itself Europe’s most unpopular company.
By: Sauron - 5th January 2006 at 17:48
It seem Herr Schroeder has been hired by the chief Russian to run the state oil market so perhaps he played a role in the dispute with the Ukraine over pricing. Nothing like threatening your customers and causing doubt about your reliabiliy as an energy provider.
Anyway, the dispute is settled for now.
In the end, Putin has held Russia to a higher standard than some members of this forum would have done in his place, based on comments made above. :rolleyes:
Sauron
By: Sauron - 5th January 2006 at 09:50
Talk about missing the point! :rolleyes:
Sauron
By: Canpark - 5th January 2006 at 08:35
Eh? Do you mean the US, or me? I’m lost…
Those who criticized Russia…
By: Grey Area - 5th January 2006 at 08:32
My point exactly, Sean. 🙂
By: SOC - 5th January 2006 at 08:28
There you go, hypocracy at its best.
Eh? Do you mean the US, or me? I’m lost…
Russia acts in the best traditions of the Free Market and suddenly people want them to act like Socialists?
They should be able to act in their own interest. Being a free market economy and a capitalist society doesn’t mean you have to sell something to a buyer at the price the buyer wants, or sell it to a certain buyer at all.
By: Grey Area - 5th January 2006 at 08:14
If Russia has the gas, and the Ukraine didn’t want to pay, then they had every right to turn off the gas lines.
Russia acts in the best traditions of the Free Market and suddenly people want them to act like Socialists?
Shome mishtake, shurely? :rolleyes:
By: Canpark - 5th January 2006 at 06:49
Here’s a link:
http://www.cnn.com/2006/WORLD/europe/01/04/russia.ukraine.gas/index.html
I will say that this is crap; Russia can charge whatever it wants, this is no different from the US offering F-16s at different prices with different offsets to different buyers. If Russia has the gas, and the Ukraine didn’t want to pay, then they had every right to turn off the gas lines.
People want to complain about Russia wanting a price hike? Where are the complaints when the terrori…er…Middle Eastern nations keep rising prices through OPEC on oil?
There you go, hypocracy at its best.
By: SOC - 5th January 2006 at 06:24
Here’s a link:
http://www.cnn.com/2006/WORLD/europe/01/04/russia.ukraine.gas/index.html
I will say that this is crap; Russia can charge whatever it wants, this is no different from the US offering F-16s at different prices with different offsets to different buyers. If Russia has the gas, and the Ukraine didn’t want to pay, then they had every right to turn off the gas lines.
People want to complain about Russia wanting a price hike? Where are the complaints when the terrori…er…Middle Eastern nations keep rising prices through OPEC on oil?
By: F-18 Hamburger - 5th January 2006 at 05:24
Yes, you are right. Russia should supply cheap energy to Europe even when Europe Turns away from Russia and looks to the US for leadership and partnership. Or perhaps not.
Ukraine is turning away from Russia towards the West. Why should Russia treat Ukraine as a special friend if the Ukraine turns its back on that friendship?
aww, did I hurt your Russian pride today Garry? its okay, lets make up by eating some borsch! although you may have to wait for a while, Putin doesn’t wanna supply them to me atm. 🙁
By: Arabella-Cox - 5th January 2006 at 04:07
stuff like this only makes former Soviet states move more to the US sphere of influence.. not just with Ukraine either.. but the Baltics, Caucasus too.
Yes, you are right. Russia should supply cheap energy to Europe even when Europe Turns away from Russia and looks to the US for leadership and partnership. Or perhaps not.
Ukraine is turning away from Russia towards the West. Why should Russia treat Ukraine as a special friend if the Ukraine turns its back on that friendship?
By: F-18 Hamburger - 4th January 2006 at 23:39
stuff like this only makes former Soviet states move more to the US sphere of influence.. not just with Ukraine either.. but the Baltics, Caucasus too.
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January 4, 2006 at 6:22 pm