Russia Tells Ukraine To Pay Its Gas Bill, Or They’ll Send The Boys Round

As the rouble continues its slow decline alongside a relatively healthy euro, Russian President Dmitry Medvedev is facing pressure to ditch his South American tour of oily diplomacy and search for revenue closer to home.

Medvedev, in partnership with Gazprom, has taken to the international courts in order to extract payment from Ukraine for oil Russia has provided. Yesterday, Ukraine agreed to pay some of it, but the beef is far from over. Gazprom claims that Ukraine has yet to pay their September/October, running at $2.4 billion. But a spokesman for Ukrainian President Viktor Yuschenko asserts that the actual amount owing is still in dispute. Get a direct debit guys.

Ukraine, since undergoing a peaceful “Orange Revolution” in 2004 that distanced it from the Kremlin’s influence, has attempted to build closer ties with the European Union. But it continues to rely on Russia’s oil reserves as its primary source of fuel.  This has led to an uneasy truce between the nations, while members of the EU are scrambling to lower their collective dependency on Russian oil.

President Yushchenko was quick to upbraid the well-coiffed Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko, his former political ally, for her role in the debt, claiming her involvement in the 2006 price control fiasco has led to Ukraine’s predicament. Tymoshenko has been quick to assert that most of the oil Russia is claiming payment for is in underground storage containers and has yet to be consumed.  Medvedev and Gazprom, meanwhile, have added a veiled threat that should their demand be ignored Ukraine’s gas prices could soar.

The EU, anxious that the European energy shortage of 2006 was also caused by Ukrainian and Russian squabbling, has been in negotiations so that disruptions are avoided at all costs.

Posted by Carmody Wilson in Other | November 26, 2008 12:07PM |