VLADIMIR PUTIN
ARCHIVE OF THE OFFICIAL SITE
OF THE 2008-2012 PRIME MINISTER
OF THE RUSSIAN FEDERATION
VLADIMIR PUTIN
ARCHIVE OF THE OFFICIAL SITE
OF THE 2008-2012 PRIME MINISTER
OF THE RUSSIAN FEDERATION
VLADIMIR PUTIN
On a réveillé l'ours qui dormait paisiblement, et le voilà qui saccage la forêt." Claude Mandil, directeur de l'Agence internationale de l'énergie (AIE) jusqu'en 2007, citait il y a quelques mois ce proverbe russe pour résumer l'attitude des Européens dans le conflit larvé sur le gaz qui les oppose à leur puissant voisin. Une manière imagée de dire qu'il vaut mieux négocier sereinement avec la Russie. Elle a toujours été un "fournisseur fiable", rappelle Gérard Mestrallet, PDG de GDF Suez, premier distributeur européen. Y compris aux pires moments de la guerre froide ou dans les années 1990, quand la transition du communisme au capitalisme aboutit à un délitement du pays.
Geopolitics: Six countries have their gas supplies cut off in the dead of winter by a Russia determined to regain its former empire and influence. The pipelines run through Ukraine. Welcome to the new "cold" war.
The Russian leader points to Ukraine and the US for his economic woes. He should look in the mirror.
The Russian leader orders the suspension of gas deliveries to Europe. Is Ukraine really to blame?
Five months after sending Russian tanks into Georgia, Vladimir Putin has turned his sights to another pesky democratic neighbor, Ukraine. His weapon of choice this time is natural gas. Try to ignore the noise about transit fees, back payments and market prices. Here's the salient fact about the conflict between Russia and Ukraine over gas supplies: Russia's strongman is wielding the energy club to undermine the pro-Western government in Kiev and scare the European Union into submission. The strategic stakes are as great as in Georgia last summer.
Neither party is innocent in the gas dispute between Russia and Ukraine that is currently gripping Europe, but the former deserves most of the blame for a debacle that may leave millions without heat during a brutal cold snap.
AT 1000 HOURS ON New Year's Day, the Russian state-controlled natural gas monopoly, Gazprom, shut down natural gas deliveries to Ukraine -- the second supply cut in three years. Russia's justification for trying to freeze its neighbor in the middle of winter is that Kiev is over $2 billion in arrears and has refused a 2009 price hike that more than doubles the 2008 rate.
Ukrainians whose gas supplies have been cut off by their former Russian masters must be quaking to hear that, according to Vladimir Putin, "people who live in countries who are neighbours do understand each other and do hear each other better. For instance, if you take the trans-border countries of Russia and Ukraine, sometimes you cannot tell where there are more Russians or where there are more Ukrainians. The ethnicities, they are so mixed that they create a combination, a symbiosis of cultures . . ."
As Russia's economy crashes, No. 1 looks out for himself.
Russlands Staatschef Medwedjew unterschreibt eine Verfassungsänderung, die die Amtszeit des Präsidenten verlängert - profitieren dürfte Premier Putin.
