Russia, Ukraine trade blame as Europe sees no gas

[Mrs. Sharon B. Hodge]

Russia, Ukraine trade blame as Europe sees no gas
By VLADIMIR ISACHENKOV


MOSCOW – Russia and Ukraine hotly traded accusations of blame Tuesday as Russia restarted natural gas supplies but little or no gas flowed toward Europe. EU officials watched in dismay and criticized both nations for their intransigence.

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Russia to resume gas supplies - video

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Russian natural gas dispute - slideshow

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Russian gas to flow again - video

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The gas pumping station at Sudzhe, Russia, seen late Sunday, Jan. 11, 2009. Ukraine signed a deal on … photo

Russia's state-controlled gas monopoly Gazprom said it began pumping gas to Europe at 10 a.m. (0700 GMT, 2 a.m. EST), ending a six-day cutoff, but four hours later Gazprom's Deputy Chairman Alexander Medvedev said Ukraine's pipeline system had failed to carry it on to Europe.

"Ukraine didn't open any export pipelines," Medvedev told reporters. "They just shut down the entry of the pipeline in the direction of the Balkans. We don't have the physical opportunity to pump the gas to European customers."

However, Ukrainian energy adviser Bohdan Sokolovsky said Russia deliberately shipped the gas along a technically arduous route that requires Ukraine to cut domestic consumers out before it can deliver gas to the Balkans.

He said a gas entry point on the Russian border and a gas pumping station near the Romanian border where Gazprom wants its gas delivered are not linked by an export pipeline.

"They are continuing their campaign to discredit Ukraine," Sokolovsky told The Associated Press.

EU spokesman Ferran Tarradellas Espuny, meanwhile, said both Russia and Ukraine had deprived EU monitors full access to the control rooms operating the gas pipeline network.

"Access to the dispatching rooms is essential to know what is actually happening," he said, adding it's "too early to draw such conclusions" on who to blame.

EU Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso called Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin to express "disappointment" over the lack of gas flow to Europe and Russia's failure to let monitors to the control room.

Barroso's aide said Putin promised to look into both matters. Putin's office said he told Barroso that Ukraine is to blame for the problem and advised him to contact Ukrainian officials.

Russia supplies about one-quarter of the EU's natural gas, 80 percent of it shipped through Ukraine's vast pipeline network. Amid a pricing dispute with Ukraine, Russia cut off gas supplies to Europe on Jan. 7 just as the continent was gripped by freezing temperatures.

Russia has accused Ukraine of stealing gas intended for Europe and only restarted supplies after a EU-led monitoring mission was deployed to gas metering and compressor stations across Ukrainian territory. Ukraine has denied the charges, claiming that Russia has not sent enough gas to pump the rest of it west to Europe.

The observer mission includes EU, Russian and Ukrainian officials and representatives of European energy companies.

"The information that we have from our monitors in Russia is that little or no gas is currently flowing and we are not at this stage jumping to conclusions as to why this is the case," said another EU spokeswoman, Pia Ahrenkilde Hansen. "This situation is obviously very serious and needs to improve rapidly."

Russia and Ukraine also continued bickering over who should pay for the so-called "technical gas" Ukraine needs to power the compressors that push Europe-bound gas through its pipelines. Ukraine warned Tuesday it will have to use some gas from Russia for that purpose but Russia said it would consider that theft.

The gas cutoff has affected more than 15 countries, with Bosnia, Bulgaria, the Czech Republic, Hungary, Serbia and Slovakia among the worst hit. Sales of electric heaters have soared and thousands of businesses in eastern Europe have been forced to cut production or even shut down. Millions of people have been affected by the heating crisis or involuntary layoffs.

Russia stopped gas supplies to Ukraine itself on Jan. 1 amid a 2009 gas contract

Russia has used the gas dispute to push for prospective gas pipelines under the Baltic and the Black Sea that would bypass Ukraine. But EU officials say the crisis should encourage a search for independent energy sources and supply routes, such as the U.S.-backed Nabucco pipeline via Turkey that would carry Caspian energy to Europe and circumvent Russia.

Relations between the two ex-Soviet neighbors have been strained since the 2004 Orange Revolution in Ukraine led to the election of a pro-Western government in Kiev.

Ukraine's efforts to join NATO and its support for the former Soviet republic of Georgia in its war with Russia in August has angered the Kremlin.

Gazprom's Medvedev claimed the United States has encouraged Ukraine's defiance in the gas dispute.

"It looks like they are dancing under the music that is orchestrated not in Ukraine," he said Tuesday.

Russia still will not send natural gas to Ukraine for domestic consumption until the deadlock is resolved over what Ukraine should pay for Russian gas in 2009 and what Russia should pay for using Ukraine's pipelines.

Ukraine last year paid $179.50 per 1,000 cubic meters of gas. Russia wants Ukraine to pay market price for gas, about the $450 that European customers pay. The latest round of price talks ended Sunday without result.
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Associated Press writers Maria Danilova and Yuras Karmanau in Kiev, Ukraine, Nataliya Vasilyeva in Moscow, and Raf Casert in Brussels contributed to this report.