Putin Having WAY Too Much Fun With EU and USA Over Ukraine

Russian president Vladimir Putin recently sent a letter to 18 European countries that are consumers of Russian gas, telling them that, while Russia is eager to honor all of its energy commitments, the situation in Ukraine is getting to the “critical” point where supplies of Russian gas to Europe through Ukraine may be threatened.

“Russia is acting very neatly, very considerately and respectfully towards our partners. We will certainly guarantee in full the honoring of all our obligations to our European consumers. We are not the problem, the problem is ensuring transit via Ukraine,”

What’s he talking about?
Putin’s letter came hot on the heels of a statement by the coup-installed Ukrainian Finance Minister, Oleksandr Shlapak, that the ‘interim’ Ukrainian government will not use its payoff money from the IMF, EU and USA to pay back major Russian debts. At an IMF and World Bank spring meeting in Washington DC on Thursday, Shlapak said:

“The money that we receive from the IMF will be divided between the reserves of the National Bank and the state budget, and the money will be earmarked. So we do not plan to spend on repaying debts to Russia”

To make matters worse, Ukrainian ‘interim’ Energy Minister Yuri Prodan, stated that Ukraine is preparing to go to the Stockholm arbitration court because, he claims, the Russian gas price is “unacceptable after all of the discounts are withdrawn”. In addition, Prodan said that Ukraine is “negotiating with the European Union about reverse deliveries into Ukraine.” “Reverse deliveries into Ukraine” means Ukraine getting Russian gas ‘by the back door’, so to speak, via France or other European countries after it has already transited through Ukraine!

In case you missed it, what Putin is rather coyly intimating (loud and clear mind you) in his letter to the EU is that, while the US/EU may have intended that their big loans to their newly-installed puppet regime in Ukraine be used to ‘open up’ the Ukrainian economy to Western plunder and remove Ukraine from Russia’s ‘sphere of influence’, there’s a slight problem.

Ukraine owes Russia a lot of money, partly in the form of $2.2billion back payments to Gazprom, but the total debt stands at a massive $16.6 billion. And, with the best will in the world, Putin is sorry to have to say that,  if Ukraine doesn’t at least pay the $2.2 billion and give assurances for payment for future gas purchases, Gazprom may not be able to continue to finance the supply of gas through Ukraine to EU countries…hint hint.

The EU and its US overlords had such a strong desire for a ‘closer relationship’ with Ukraine that they were willing to involve themselves in a rather undemocratic coup in the country. Well, now they have that ‘close relationship’, and it comes with the sticky problem of Ukraine’s large debts to Russia and the fact that Russian gas to Europe transits through Ukraine.

If in their irrational hatred of everything Russian the Ukrainian puppet politicians are blind to the political realities and think themselves in a position to dismiss Russian requests for debt repayment, the same can’t be said of the EU. Speaking for Germany and all EU minions dependent (to one extent or another) on Russian gas, German Chancellor Angela Merkel appears to have finally awoken to the cold hard facts of the situation and realised that, if anyone is out of touch with reality, it’s the US/EU ‘regime changers’.

In response to Putin’s letter, Merkel said:

“There are many reasons to seriously take into account this message […] and for Europe to deliver a joint European response. When we take all these steps, we can be sure that we have reached a joint response for the countries that face this problem because they are getting gas from Gazprom. European states would like to be good clients but we would also like to be sure Russian gas supplies are not interrupted.”

The US State department that oversaw the coup in Ukraine naturally weighed in to the debate with the kind of hollow, hypocritical rhetoric for which it has become infamous in recent years:

“US State Department spokeswoman Jen Psaki has accused Russia of reneging on an agreement that offered reduced gas prices to Kiev and using “energy as a tool of coercion against Ukraine.” The price Ukraine is currently paying is “clearly not set by market forces and well above the average price paid by EU members”

Putin’s response to the US state department sticking their nose is was perfect:

“It’s a bit strange, because it’s bad to read other people’s letters. It wasn’t addressed to them, but to the consumers of gas in Europe.  Everybody is used to the fact that our American friends are eavesdropping, but turning into peeping toms is altogether shabby” he said.

Clearly Putin’s having WAY too much fun here. But who can blame him.

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