« AND SO PASSES A WOMAN’S LIFE IN TURKEYLavrov on Russian Foreign Policy »

Germany's Merkel Agrees with 'Angry' Slovak Leader that Ukraine Bums EU to Pay for Russian Gas But Merkel says EU taxpayers will have to subsidize Ukraine

October 23rd, 2014

Eric Zuesse

On October 21st, the German Economic News headlined (as translated), "Merkel: EU Taxpayers Should Finance Debt of Ukraine," and reported that, "Angela Merkel visited [Slovakia's Finance Minister] Robert Fico on Monday [in the Slovak capital of Bratislavia]. Both leaders demand that Kiev should take more responsibility," and not push the EU to pay Ukraine's past-due gas bills from Russia's Gazprom.

Ukraine's leader, Petro Poroshenko, was "demanding" that the EU bail out Ukraine, which is months behind on its gas bill from Gazprom, and which furthermore has been getting Slovakia to reverse flow of Russia's gas, in order to meet Kiev's own heating-needs.

"Ukraine and Russia negotiate Tuesday morning in Brussels about the dispute over gas supplies," to Europe, through Ukraine's pipelines from Russia.

"Russia demands that Ukraine pay its past-due gas bill of $4.5 billion, but doubts Kiev's solvency."

Merkel proposes that the EU provide a bridge-loan to help Ukraine get through the winter. She says, "It could not be expected that the EU will take over Ukraine's gas debt to Russia. Fico's anger is understandable."

BusinessWeek headlined on Monday that, "Russia Won't Accept Terms to End Sanctions Over Ukraine," and reported that, "Russia's top diplomat [Sergei Lavrov] said his country won't accept [Obama's and the EU's] conditions to end sanctions after talks in Italy produced no breakthrough over the truce in Ukraine." That truce is between the residents in Ukraine's southeast, and the Ukrainian Government, which has been bombing them ever since May, in order to end their desire to break away from that Government and support instead their own republic or republics, set up by themselves. Those regions had voted at around 90% for the Ukrainian President, Viktor Yanukovych, who was overthrown on February 22 in Kiev, after America’s State Department official Victoria Nuland appointed Arseniy Yatsenyuk to lead Ukraine until a new President would be elected by voters in Ukraine’s northwest, on May 25th. The people in Ukraine’s southeast wanted to join Russia.

Russia isn't buckling to the U.S.-EU pressures. BusinessWeek notes that Russia's President Vladimir Putin, whose nation pipes about 15 percent of the EU's natural gas needs through Ukraine, "said last week that supplies to Europe would be reduced if the Ukrainian government siphoned off fuel for its own use."

So, Russia seems to be standing firm on getting its back-due payments from Ukraine, and on refusing to accept the West's conditions for ending sanctions against Russia, and on prohibiting Ukraine from reverse-flowing any more of Russia's gas.

Russia thus seems to be standing firm on everything pertaining to Ukraine and the EU. If this will keep up, then the EU's taxpayers could end up paying a very hefty price for 'winning' Ukraine to join the EU.

The United States, by comparison, suffers very little from the entire matter.

-###-

Investigative historian Eric Zuesse is the author, most recently, of They're Not Even Close: The Democratic vs. Republican Economic Records, 1910-2010 , and of Christ's Ventriloquists: The Event that Created Christianity .

No feedback yet

Voices  Share this page

Voices

  • Cesare Sacchetti When Donald Trump in 2016 walked down the mobile stairs of his New York residence, the Trump Tower, many prominent members of the deep state were anguished by a feeling of both panic and fear. Panic because for the first time after the…
  • Jeff Thomas The decline from democracy to tyranny is both a natural and inevitable one. That’s not a pleasant thought to have to consider, but it’s a fact, nonetheless. In every case, a democracy will deteriorate as the result of the electorate…
  • Walter Gelles Legal trickery would silence Dr. Charles Hoffe Prominent Canadian physician Dr. Charles Hoffe has spoken out courageously to warn people of the very serious dangers of the Covid mRNA genetic "vaccines". He now faces trial from the Canadian…
  • Stephen Lendman [04/05/23][Stephen died on May 9th, 2023, about a month after he wrote this article.] Illegitimately installed Biden regime criminals run the empire of lies and forever wars. A previous article discussed Trump’s politicized indictment,…
  • Linh Dinh [Pakse, Laos on 6/5/23] Sherwood Anderson, “For a time he was lonely and wrote to Alice almost every day. Then he was caught up by the life of the city; he began to make friends and found new interests in life.” Why quote a rather plain…
  • Walter Gelles Breaking News: "A prominent Canadian doctor who is bravely speaking out about the Wuhan coronavirus (COVID-19) 'vaccine' damage he is observing in many of his patients is facing trial this March over accusations of professional misconduct.…
  • Ethan Huff & Lioness of Judah Ministry A prominent Canadian doctor who is bravely speaking out about the Wuhan coronavirus (COVID-19) "vaccine" damage is facing trial this March over accusations of professional misconduct. Dr. Charles Hoffe is the…
  • James Howard Kunstler “How many of these places where polite society turns out to be provably insane do we have to see before we stop taking their judgment on anything as significant?” — Bret Weinstein The USA is a runaway train with a dead man in the…
  • M. K. BHADRAKUMAR [[05/23/23]] The G7 Leaders’ 2700-word statement on Ukraine, issued in Hiroshima after their summit meeting glossed over the burning question today — the so-called counter-offensive against the Russian forces. It is a deafening…
  • F. William Engdahl [04/25/23] Why are major governments, corporations, think tanks and the Davos WEF all promoting a Zero Carbon global agenda to eliminate use of oil, gas, coal? They know that the turn to solar and wind-based electricity is impossible.…
March 2024
Sun Mon Tue Wed Thu Fri Sat
 << <   > >>
          1 2
3 4 5 6 7 8 9
10 11 12 13 14 15 16
17 18 19 20 21 22 23
24 25 26 27 28 29 30
31            

  XML Feeds

powered by b2evolution
FAIR USE NOTICE: This site contains copyrighted articles and information about environmental, political, human rights, economic, democratic, scientific, and social justice issues, etc. This news and information is displayed without profit for educational purposes, in accordance with, Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107 of the US Copyright Law. Thepeoplesvoice.org is a non-advocacy internet web site, edited by non-affiliated U.S. citizens. editor
ozlu Sozler GereksizGercek Hava Durumu Firma Rehberi Hava Durumu Firma Rehberi E-okul Veli Firma Rehberi