1/11/2009

Gas deal null and void

Russian President Medvedev says Russia considers the EU-mediated deal to monitor gas flow across Ukraine void because of changes made by Ukraine.

The President urged that Ukraine should withdraw its declaration that accompanies the agreement. They will not restart the gas supplies to Europe until it has a valid deal.

Gas news

As Bohdan Sokolovsky, an energy adviser to the Ukrainian president, told the Associated Press the declaration was only a statement explaining the Ukrainian position. He accused Moscow of exerting political and economic pressure on Ukraine.

"Russia has turned the gas war into a gas circus where bears have already forgotten that they can be tamed," Sokolovsky told The Associated Press. "The Kremlin is consciously creating conflict."

FoxNews

Now that's cold. And the madness continues.

As a result Slovakia has decided to restart a totally out-of-date Soviet-era nuclear reactor in Bohunice (that was shut down in December at the request of the European Union for safety reasons) because it faces a lack of energy due to the gas dispute between Ukraine and Russia.

This makes me shiver, and not because of the cold. The ancient Bohunice reactor is only 100 kilometres off Vienna.

5 comments:

Lydia said...

O, Francessa, now I have chills as well. It's frightful news, and really IS news to me since our Sunday paper carried a piece about gas coming. This isn't being reported sufficiently in our news here. Hopefully, with the latest change of course, we'll begin seeing news pieces. Thank you for keeping us informed via your blog.

francessa said...

Lydia, they are planning to start with test shipments tomorrow. Let's see.

Once the gas will be where it should be, they will stop the nuclear power plant in Slovakia. Hopefully.

Lydia said...

Very tense time until then. :(

Lydia said...

I read the latest at Reuter's this afternoon. There's a map at that article showing the affected areas, with Austria included. I'm extremely concerned for affected Europeans and I think this is an atrocity.

francessa said...

Thanks for the hint, Lydia. I'll have a look at Reuters myself.

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