On Wednesday the giant, Russian, state owned energy corporation Gazprom stopped delivering natural gas to Poland and Bulgaria. So, this is in addition to the move made earlier towards Germany. Germany had its gas supplies from Russia cut off earlier this month.
The reason for these moves was because these countries have refused to pay for gas in Rubles as demanded by the Russian authorities.
The Russian authorities had made its’ demands some time ago and so this is them simply doing as they said they would do. A spokesman for Gazprom said that Poland and Bulgaria had been given fair warning.
I find it interesting that the Russian authorities make a threat and then follow through. What they say therefore should be thought of as important and should be given proper consideration. Their threats are not hollow. Their incursion into Ukraine, after all, came after many years of them warning the Western powers not to intervene in the country, or else. And also
NATO’s encircling effort of Russia.
The other thing to say about this is that it means that any talk of nuclear action by the Russian authorities needs to heeded. Again, their threats are not hollow.
Anyway, Poland imports some 50% of its Natural gas from Russia and Bulgaira some 90% - so we are talking large amounts. So, this move puts not just Poland and Bulgaria under pressure, but increases the pressure on the EU as a whole. Taken as a whole, the EU gets some 40% of it’s gas from Russia.
Not least because Russia has put a condition on this move saying that if other countries in the EU share their gas with either Poland, or Bulgaria, Russia will take action by limiting gas exports to the EU as a whole by the amount shared.
I dare say then that the Russian authorities will monitor the situation and act accordingly.
As for the EU their response has been to say that it’s a breach of contract because the contracts stipulate payment in Dollars and Euros. This is indeed factual, but it’s also probably true to say that they are trying to spin the story to their advantage. This is an information war and battles regarding information can be won or lost if the general public can be persuaded by an argument.
This is also financial war. And all sorts of things happen in wars.- as we have seen with the Western powers “freezing”, taking possession of, Russia’s foreign currency Reserves held in banks outside of Russia.
This move to cut of gas supply is just an escalation in the financial war by the Russian authorities.
I find it interesting that Russia has continued to supply the gas even though they are essentially in a state of war with the Western Powers, the recipients of the gas. They could have pursued a much harder line and simply cut off supply right from the outset. All that they are demanding is the gas be paid for in Rubles. Obviously this has ramifications but, the point still stands.
The other thing to say is this could prove to be divisive and it could even lead to a break up of th
