We had a Ukrainian cab driver from our hotel to SeaTac yesterday. Having visited his former country in the eighties and having Odessa blood in my veins (father’s side), I engaged the driver in conversation about recent doings in Kiev. Typically Eastern European, he wasn’t particularly optimistic about the new democracy in the Ukraine. “Maybe in fifty years,” he said. The big problem was their neighbor Russia. “They are KGB. Putin. All of them,” he continued. This, of course, was no shock to me, but I hadn’t realized at the time, heading for the airport on New Year’s Eve, what today’s news would bring from that part of the world where Russia has halted natural gas sales to the Ukraine.
When Russia’s state-controlled natural gas monopoly sets prices for the former members of the Soviet Union, it is sometimes difficult to separate politics from business.
Belarus, for example, is a key transit country for the Russian natural gas on its way to Western Europe. It does not have political friction with Moscow, and the Russians charge it only $47 per 1,000 cubic meters of that gas it buys for itself.
But Ukraine would be charged at the other extreme, under the Russian demand – $220 or more, the same as the wealthy gas-buying nations of Western Europe. Ukraine is one of two main routes for Russian gas flowing to Western Europe, but it has angered Moscow and the Russian president, Vladimir Putin.
Viktor Yushchenko became Ukraine’s president last year after his supporters overturned a fraudulent election, defeating a Kremlin-backed candidate and pledging to turn Ukraine toward the West. Kiev hopes to join both the European Union and NATO. The other countries that once made up the Soviet Union are in a broad middle range of charges by the Russian company, Gazprom.
One of the sad sequelae to the cold war is the persistence of most of the enemies – Russia may have shed its puppets, but in too many areas it is our geopolitical opponent, and retains the ability to nuke us into dust. China, regardless of its greediness, has also created that capability and is ruled by folks just as nasty as Putin.
The KGB is waging war on the Ukraine – by economic means in this instance, but don’t forget the dioxin poisoning of the current president. Putin is not only KGB, he is capable of the worst of the KGB’s past actions. Bush didn’t see the right soul when he looked into Putin’s heart.
Just for fun on this first day of the year, imagine what the KGB (or the PLA) plus some Islamofascists might do… Russia has *lots* of nukes and Putin will perhaps do anything for money and power.
Roger,
Being a Hollywood guy, Jewish and an Academy member I think, have you weighed in on the new Spielberg movie Munich yet? I though of you when I just read the devasting hit piece Bret Stephens did to it over on OpinionJournal.com today. I have not seen the movie but it sounds, and this is harsh, worthy of Leni Riefenstahl. I would be very interested in your informed and experienced opinion.
I am not Jewish nor too religious, but today my two Jewish stepsons just got back from an out of town visit to their father’s, saw the movie with him, and seem to have bought the propaganda hook line and sinker, i.e., both sides are bad guys. To me that is quite sad.
Sorry this is not related to the topic to which this is attached, but again, I want your opinion and did not know how else to ask for it.
Best regards,
Tom of the Missouri.
I wonder how many people are making this connection?
“Gerhard Schroeder: Vladimir Putin’s “Western Collaborator”
I wonder how many people are making this connection?
Gerhard Schroeder: Vladimir Putin’s “Western Collaborator
Vladimir (Ras)Putin,why don’t we call him?
Vladimir (Ras)Putin,why don’t we call him?
Everyone attacks Putin on this issue but supposed free-market capitalists never seem to question why on earth Russia should subsidize Ukraine’s natural gas purchases. The real issue is why the Russian taxpayer (or more realistically, the owners of Gazprom) have to subsidize Belarus. If Ukraine wants to be treated like an independent state then they should behave like an independent state and not whine when their security blanket is taken away. Ironically Russia’s actions, while economically sound, are from the point of view of a Russian nationalist politically stupid and counterproductive. The result of this dispute will in fact be a Ukraine even closer to the West and more self-sufficient. Just what Putin claims he doesn’t want.
Russia does not have to subsidize Ukraine but they have to honour the existing natural gas contracts. In August 2004 (three months before Yuschenko-Yanukovich election), Gazprom signed a contract with Ukraine guaranteeing the natural gas prices until 2009. Now, Putin is trying to get out of this contract. Trying to influence election by long-term low-price natural gas contract which is then torn apart if the wrong candidate wins – that is quite outrageous.
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