there is a link for a reason that the mod added. real simple click it and read the article.
looks like its starting already.
Crisis deepens as Russian gas supplies to Europe halted
All deliveries of Russian gas through Ukraine were halted Wednesday, depriving tens of thousands of Europeans of heat in freezing weather and raising the stakes in a bitter dispute between Moscow and Kiev.
At least eleven European states as far west as Austria have reported full halts of Russian gas supplies during a cold snap that has seen temperatures of almost minus 25 degrees Celsius (minus 13 Fahrenheit) in some places.
Efforts to resolve the crisis gathered pace, with the Russian, Ukrainian and European sides set to meet in Brussels on Thursday to discuss the idea of using international monitors to check on gas flows from Russia through Ukraine.
"Russia will resume its deliveries when the observer groups are in place," Czech Prime Minister Mirek Topolanek, whose country currently holds the EU's rotating presidency, told journalists at an EU meeting in Prague.
Meanwhile, Romania declared a state of emergency and 70,000 households in the Bosnian capital Sarajevo spent the night without heating. Bulgaria turned off heating on all public transport in Sofia.
The United States, a staunch ally of Ukraine's pro-Western leaders, weighed in with a reaction critical of Russia.
Russia will compromise its bid for more global influence if it continues to "threaten its neighbours and manipulate their access to energy," US national security advisor Stephen Hadley said.
Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin told state-run energy giant Gazprom to cut off the last deliveries to Ukraine as retaliation for what Moscow calls the "theft" of Russian gas bound for Europe.
In a televised meeting with Putin, Gazprom head Alexei Miller proposed "to end deliveries of gas at the Russian-Ukrainian border in conditions where Ukraine carries out the theft of Russian gas," and Putin agreed.
Putin later said Russia would only resume gas supplies when a mechanism was agreed for deploying international observers, according to his press service.
Russia is the world's biggest natural gas producer and provides about one-quarter of the gas used in the EU. Some 80 percent of Russia's gas exports to the EU pass though Ukraine.
Moscow cut gas supplies for Ukraine's domestic market on January 1 in a politically tinged dispute over late payments and new gas prices for 2009.
In the bitter war of words that has ensued, Russia has accused Ukraine of stealing Russian gas destined for Europe while Kiev has blamed Moscow for the shortfalls.
European Commission chief Jose Manuel Barroso announced that representatives of Gazprom, Ukraine's gas group Naftogaz, the Ukrainian and Russian governments and EU officials would discuss how to restore gas supplies to Europe in Brussels on Thursday.
Ukraine's government said Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko had spoken to Barroso and agreed "to immediately send EU technical observers so that they conduct constant monitoring of natural gas supply volumes."
In Prague, Topolanek promised a "stronger intervention" from the EU if supplies were not restored by Thursday.
He also said EU energy ministers would hold an extraordinary meeting on Monday if Russian gas imports through Ukraine are not restored.
Both Ukraine and Russia continued to blame each other for leaving Europe in the cold.
"Russia has left Europe without gas," Naftogaz spokesman Valentin Zemlyansky told AFP, saying that Russia had stopped all gas deliveries through Ukraine at 7:44 am (0544 GMT).
Gazprom vice-president Alexander Medvedev blamed Kiev: "Last night Ukraine shut down all gas pipelines to Europe," he told reporters in Berlin.
Since then Austria, Bosnia, Bulgaria, Croatia, the Czech Republic, Greece, Hungary, Macedonia, Romania, Slovakia and Slovenia have announced that all their supplies of Russian gas had been cut off.
France, Germany, Italy and Serbia all reported drastic falls in Russian gas supplies. Poland and Turkey said supplies of Russian gas from Ukraine had been completely cut but were getting increased amounts through different pipelines.
Slovak Prime Minister Robert Fico said that his country might reopen a power generating unit at Jaslovske Bohunice nuclear plant if the situation continued.
The disruption coincides with the advance of an exceptionally cold front across much of central and western Europe. Many countries in Eastern and Central Europe depend on gas for central heating.
Experts have said however that the impact of the crisis would be mitigated by the fact that European countries consciously stocked up reserves after a similar Russia-Ukraine dispute caused shortfalls in 2006.
http://rawstory.com/news/afp/Crisis_deepens_as_Russian_gas_suppl_01072009.html
Edited by eatyualive (01/07/09 11:05 PM)
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