Merkel pushes Putin to end blockade :: Charter'97 :: News

German Chancellor Angela Merkel prodded Russian President Vladimir Putin to end the cutoff of European oil supplies triggered by Russia’s pricing clash with neighboring Belarus. In an echo of last year’s Russian embargo of natural gas shipments to Ukraine, Russia stopped pumping crude oil through Belarus after the Belarusian government imposed a transit tax in retaliation against a Russian price increase.

“Even during the Cold war, Russia was a stable energy supplier,’’ Merkel, holder of the European Union’s six-month presidency, said at a Berlin press conference on Tuesday. She called Russia’s failure to consult the EU ahead of time “ not acceptable.’’

Slovakia and the Czech Republic were cut off from Russian oil deliveries on Tuesday, after flows to Poland and Germany were disrupted . Russia supplies a quarter of the 27-nation EU’s oil. The message to “to our Russian partners and to Belarus as well is that consultations are the least thing to do,’’ Merkel said.