Russia Turns Off The Gas Taps On Georgia In Price Row

Russian gas company Itera shut off gas supplies to six Georgian cities and districts Thursday for not paying their bills.

The move came as the row between Moscow and Tbilisi over the price Georgia pays for Russian natural gas remained unresolved just days before a January 1 deadline to accept the new price of 235 dollars per 1,000 cubic metres.
Georgia was not prepared to pay the new price, Economy Minister Giorgi Arveladse said in Tbilisi. “It is not a market price, but a political price,” Interfax news agency quoted him as saying.

Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan pledged on a visit to the Georgian capital to transfer 800 million cubic metres of gas from its Azerbaijani shipments.

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