Europe Worried by Gas Conflict between Russia and Belarus :: Charter'97 :: News

European countries concerned over future gas deliveries from Russia because of problems of the latter with Belarus and Ukraine. As informed by Ukrainian magazine “Korrespondent”, an analyst of Oxford institute on energy problems Jonathan Stern.

He underlined that energy row between Russia and transit countries would not be settled in the near future, that could lead to Russian gas delivery’s stoppage.

In January 2006 a gas crisis when Russia stopped gas deliveries to Ukraine because of price disagreement, influenced almost all European countries. Europe receives one forth of the gas from Russia via gas pipes on the territory of Ukraine and Belarus.

“Russia’s problems with transit countries have mostly political and economic character, and it’s difficult to solve them in a short period of time,” Stern said. “A tense situation would remain in Europe concerning Russian gas export for this period, especially in winter,” he added.

Last week Belarus stated that it would break relations with Moscow in case it would raise gas prices. Gazprom plans to raise gas price for Belarus four times next year.