Putin warns of gas shutdown to Europe if Ukraine fails to pay

EU comes to the rescue...


EU arranges anti-gas crisis loan for Ukraine

03.08.2009


The European Commission has helped Ukraine to secure international loans to prevent a repetition of last winter's gas cut-off.

The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development, the European Investment Bank and the World Bank will together put forward $1.7 billion (€1.2 billion).

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The $1.7 billion gas package is to come on top of $16.4 billion of general economic aid from the International Monetary Fund.

reply to post by Hellmutt


And here I though EU and the IMF were running short on funds. I guess they can still come up with the dough when they start feeling the heat, or in this case when they face a major threat of supply distruptions in the winter. The question is - how will Ukraine pay back? Will it pay back? They call it a loan, but seeing as how the country is virtually bankrupt it might as well be a bail out. This might by enough to carry Ukraine through the rest of this year - but what happens next year? Its economy shows no sign of improvement, and government budget and cash flow is even worse.

Originally posted by warrenb
More and more lately, we are seeing Russia flaunt it's strength on the world stage. Their brand of communism is disturbing, to say the least. The glaring divide between the rich and poor classes would put a bad taste in anyone's mouth.

Perhaps a vision of the future of the US should it citizenry, not awake in time.

Not something to new for Russia.. just a few years ago they shut the gas lines down into Georgia, causing many people to freeze to death.

Russia wants paid, Ukraine cannot afford the payment, and the gas lines connect almost all of Europe. I think the simple solution is that the EU needs to pick up Ukraine's gas bill. And, at least the Russians are being nice this time and shutting the system down in July/August .. and not in December or January like they did to Georgia.

reply to post by maloy

And here I though EU and the IMF were running short on funds.

I don't know how the IMF really works.. whether or not they use only the funds appropriated to them through the US Government, or if they use their own form of currency, one which China has openly called to be a World Reserve currency.

Originally posted by Rockpuck
Not something to new for Russia.. just a few years ago they shut the gas lines down into Georgia, causing many people to freeze to death.

Where did you get this info? Sources?

Originally posted by Rockpuck
And, at least the Russians are being nice this time and shutting the system down in July/August

Actually Russia is not shutting anything down, and it didn't plan any shut down for the summer. This matter is about whether Ukraine has the money to fill up its gas reserves in time for winter, so that there is less chance for problems then.

reply to post by maloy


This news story slants toward Russia, but it was the first I found:

www.nytimes.com...

It was an "attack" .. but it happened to occur while Russia and Georgia were in a bit of a bad spot, and the only ones majorly affected also happened to be... Georgians. Whether you believe a terrorist attack or a Russian attack is entirely up to you.

I am not demonizing Russia, America and Europe have done far worse this decade than Russia. Just saying there seems to be a history of Russia using it's gas lines for political/economical gain.

reply to post by Rockpuck


I don't see anything about this incident resulting in any deaths in Georgia.

Also why would Russia blow up their own pipeline - and then pay to have it fixed. In addition to this, the pipeline in question also supplied Armenia, which is a close ally of Russia and which was also hurt as the result of the explosion.

reply to post by maloy


All perspective I suppose, it was a suspicious incident to say the least. Why would someone blow up a Russian pipeline if it didn't affect Russians (aside from paying to have it repaired. Which they supposedly took their time doing?)

Anyways, I digress from the topic.