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Page added on March 7, 2014
Vladimir Putin using Russia’s natural gas as a weapon against Ukraine
Former U.S. secretary of state Hillary Clinton says Russian President Vladimir Putin is using his country’s energy resources to intimidate his opponents.
Concerns over Ukraine’s financial condition mounted this week after Russian state gas company Gazprom said it was cancelling a substantial discount on natural gas granted to the former satellite country in December. Mr. Putin, meanwhile, noted Ukraine still owes Russia about US$2-billion for gas.
Ms. Clinton told a business audience Thursday Mr. Putin’s incursion in Ukraine follows a pattern of behaviour he established with the invasion of Georgia in 2008.
“Vladimir Putin cherishes a vision of a greater Russia. His goal is to re-Sovietize Russia,” she said to the 2,500 who came to hear her speak in Calgary.
“That means trouble. And that’s why everyone is scrambling to prop up Ukraine … and to try to prevent future escalation.”
Russia’s position on Ukraine’s gas debts is a shift from last year, when Moscow tolerated letting the country pile up unpaid bills. The change in tone came after the ouster of the country’s pro-Russian president, Viktor Yanukovych, by protesters who want closer ties with the European Union.
“One of the principle tools of intimidation that Russia has used is their energy resources — both in the winter of 2006 and then on Jan. 1, 2009, when the giant Russian energy company Gazprom shut off all natural gas exports to Ukraine,” Ms. Clinton said.
“That was a wake-up call and it sent a chill, not only across Ukraine, but indeed across Europe. There are cases when one nation tries to use its energy supply to dominate or intimidate another. Russia’s behaviour toward Ukraine is an obvious example.”
Related
- Obama calls Crimea independence vote illegal as U.S. destroyer sent on exercises in the Black Sea
- Lawrence Solomon: Why Ukraine should break up
- Kelly McParland: Putin acts like a former Soviet KGB agent. Why are we surprised?
- Mysterious and ‘arrogant’ Vladimir Putin seeks Russia’s return to status of world superpower
The U.S.’s former top diplomat warned the West’s role in the Ukrainian crisis has reached a delicate point. This is because Russia is at a crossroads and must decide if it will work with the West to create a better economic future.
“If Putin were not so fixated on reclaiming the Soviet empire and crushing all signs of dissent, he might realize that Russia’s hand in dealing with extremists along Russia’s southern plain as well as a potential rivalry to the east with China [would] be strengthened,” Ms. Clinton said.
“Unfortunately as it stands, Russia under Putin remains frozen between a past it can’t let go of and a future it can’t bring itself to embrace.”
She also criticized Russia’s reopening of old Soviet military bases in the Arctic.
“It’s not only Ukraine and Georgia we’re now keeping our eye on,” she said.
“It does threaten to militarize that pristine region that both Canada and the United States have interests in, to preserve the Arctic and help to develop it in a sensible manner.”
Ms. Clinton said it is in the best interests of Russia, Canada, the United States and the five other Arctic Council members to find ways to reach agreements on how to handle resource development in the region, which “is clearly coming.”
Canada’s formal scientific submission to the United Nations has claimed 1.2 million square kilometres of seabed under the Atlantic. It has also made a preliminary claim in the Arctic Ocean and hopes to expand Canada’s Arctic claim to include the North Pole.
The Canadian Press
10 Comments on "Vladimir Putin using Russia’s natural gas as a weapon against Ukraine"
dissident on Fri, 7th Mar 2014 3:36 pm
Ah shaddup. Most natural gas in Ukraine is consumed by the industrialized east, the pro-Russian part. The anti-Russian west is agrarian and is not affected by any such “blackmail”. So Russia would alienate its supporters in Ukraine so that Hitlery could have her little trope? Not a chance.
J-Gav on Fri, 7th Mar 2014 3:47 pm
Yeah right … like if the U.S. or somebody else held sway over the EU’s gas supply they would N-E-V-E-R dream of using it politically. Dunderheads!
Davy, Hermann, MO on Fri, 7th Mar 2014 4:34 pm
Putin will sink his own ship. The US will just hurt its own cause by trying to hurt Putin’s. This is not the cold war anymore and using that analogy is pointless. I worry about a president Hillery if she runs!!!
Northwest Resident on Fri, 7th Mar 2014 5:17 pm
COMCAST used cable TV/internet as a weapon against me once when I accidentally fell behind on my payment by two months.
That’s why, with Ukraine owing what — $2 billion or so in non-payments on energy — I can sympathize with them when Russia uses the service/energy they aren’t paying for as a “weapon” against them.
Minor point, I know.
Nony on Fri, 7th Mar 2014 6:08 pm
Don’t forget that Russia is getting passage through Ukraine for their gas to Europe. Ukraine should just slap a tax on all that product moving through.
The sad thing is the Euros are standing by to help Putin carve up the Ukraine. They’re cowards who are only free because of US military. Maybe we should pull our military out of Continental Europe. UK are still are friends. They come to all our wars.
GregT on Fri, 7th Mar 2014 6:15 pm
What an absolutely scary woman. (part of that term, is of course, used loosely) She and her CFR and AIPAC buddies need to be shut down for good. God bless America? God HELP America if she ever gets instilled as POTUS.
Put her out to pasture, PLEASE!, before it’s too late.
GregT on Fri, 7th Mar 2014 6:27 pm
“UK are still are friends. They come to all our wars.”
I hope this is only some sick attempt at humour.
Makati1 on Sat, 8th Mar 2014 1:14 am
Somebody should tell this old bitch that she is obsolete. She and Kissinger need to just fade into the Sunset. But, as they are part of the insane Elite that want to rule the world, that is not going to happen.
Would you prefer Russia to threaten the Ukraine with nukes? And wouldn’t the West use the same methods if they could? After all, this was started by Western Elites in some foolish idea that it would work. No, the West prefers drones and invasion. It is much more profitable.
I agree Nony. Pull our 66,000 troops and ALL of our military equipment out of Europe and watch it collapse. The West is bankrupt financially, intellectually and morally. The rest of the world already knows it.
Northwest Resident on Sat, 8th Mar 2014 6:04 am
“Pull our 66,000 troops and ALL of our military equipment out of Europe and watch it collapse.”
Yeah, that’s the spirit Makati. Just watch them all squirm and suffer and die — just exactly what they deserve. Great plan.
Speaking of morally bankrupt…
Makati1 on Sat, 8th Mar 2014 7:38 am
NWR, the banquet of consequence is over due for the West. That you have your life invested in it is not going to change a thing. That you prefer to put down other’s thoughts on topics also does not change their minds or reality.
I have tried to back off the attacks and not return them in kind. Occasionally, I try to make them think by introducing evidence of my position. Often, there is none that can easily be posted. I read for hours every day on many websites and international newspapers. The conclusions I arrive at are based on the many variations of the same ‘news’ that I read over years of ‘research’. I think I still have something called common sense, and perhaps even the experience of my 70 years, to guide my decisions.
If I come across as anti-US or the West, you may be assured that it was not an easy decision. But, I cannot put on rose colored glasses or blinders to avoid it. I too have a family in the US that I worry about. I also know that their future is out of my hands. I can only do what I can to make my last decades as comfortable as possible with the resources I have to work with.
That the collapse should come sooner rather than later is also the best wish I can have for my family as it may leave something for them to build a new life on. If BAU goes on for another decade or so, nothing will be left but misery.