The Georgian prime minister on Wednesday denounced Russia’s move to more than double the price for natural gas for the ex-Soviet nation as “political blackmail” and said that Georgia would look for alternative supplies.
Russia’s state gas monopoly OAO Gazprom has said it plans to charge Tbilisi $230 per 1,000 cubic meters of gas, compared with the $110 that it pays no and warned that it would cut off supplies by Jan 1, if a contract was not signed.
“Georgia will not yield to political blackmail,” Georgia’s Prime Minister Zurab Nogaideli said at a cabinet session. “We are also conducting negotiations with other countries on gas supplies. We will chose the best option.”
Georgian leaders have said the price hike was clearly political because other ex-Soviet nations were paying far less and vowed not to pay a “non-market price.”
Moscow and Tbilisi have been locked in a bruising dispute following the detention of four purported Russian spies in September. Despite their quick release, Russia slapped Georgia with economic and other sanction, which Georgian leaders have criticized as Moscow’s retaliation for the Caucasus nation’s pro-Western course.
(AFX, 08/11.2006)