Large swaths of the European Union were left without
Russian gas supplies for a seventh day, as a pact to kick-start Russian exports
via Ukraine unraveled Tuesday and Moscow and Kiev blamed each other.
The collapse of the deal, brokered the day before by the EU, risked further
undermining Russia's credentials as a reliable energy supplier and may
encourage the 27-nation bloc to turn rhetoric into action on its need to find
alternate energy supplies. It also exposed, again, how vulnerable the EU is to
such quarrels.
On Monday, the EU struck what it thought was a breakthrough deal, allowing Russia to restart shipments that had been suspended since a
contract dispute between Moscow and Kiev led to a total shutdown on Jan. 7. Under terms of the
deal, EU monitors were to track the pipelines to ensure gas flowed. The bloc
gets a quarter of its gas imports from Russia, the vast majority of that via Ukraine.
But by midday Tuesday, Ukraine's transit network contained no new Russian gas. Russian
gas monopoly OAO Gazprom said it had resumed flows as agreed, but complained
that Ukraine had refused to open its transit network.
"If the system is closed we can't deliver," Gazprom Deputy Chairman
Alexander Medvedev told reporters. He called Ukraine's actions "unbelievable."
In a sign Moscow's patience is wearing thin and the dispute is
becoming increasingly political, Mr. Medvedev alluded to U.S. involvement in the dispute. It looked like Ukraine was "dancing" to Washington's music, he said.
The U.S. State Department dismissed the comment as "baseless."
Ukraine confirmed it hadn't reopened its transit system, but
blamed Gazprom for sending gas on a route that would have forced Kiev to shut down supplies to its own consumers.
Therefore, Ukraine said, it couldn't accept the gas.
"We couldn't open the tap because we don't have that possibility,"
said Oleh Dubina, chief executive of state gas company Naftogaz Ukrainy,
according to Russian news agency Interfax.
Independent gas analyst Mikhail Korchemkin, who is based in Pennsylvania, said Ukraine was right. "Russia is deliberately complicating the situation," he
said in a phone interview. "They sent the gas to the wrong terminal."
Gazprom denies that, saying it was the right terminal and one earmarked for
export flows.
Late Tuesday, Ukraine President Viktor Yushchenko accused Moscow of "blackmail" and called on Russia to sign a technical agreement to get gas flowing
again.
In Moscow, Prime Minister Vladimir Putin joined EU monitors and
Gazprom CEO Alexei Miller in the company's control room. Standing in front of a
giant map of Gazprom's gas flows across Europe,
Mr. Putin said on Russian state television that the two sides needed to work
out how to resume supplies. Russian officials were shown telling him it was Ukraine's fault. "There are no reasons for the gas not
flowing," Mr. Miller said during the broadcast.
In Brussels, an EU official said the dispute was like mediating
"a schoolyard fight between first graders." EU officials said they
weren't assigning blame because their monitors weren't allowed by either side
into the right parts of the gas terminals.
Their frustration was audible. "We don't see any justification for gas not
being in the pipelines," EU spokesman Ferran Tarradellas Espuny said.
In a move that suggested the crisis may encourage EU states to reduce their
reliance on Russian gas, Poland said it would press ahead with plans to build one or
two nuclear power plants.