European Union: Held hostage by Russia’s Gazprom

It’s January, and that means Russia is cutting off the gas to Ukraine, said Jakob Zirm in Austria’s Die Presse. Bickering over gas prices has become “an annual tradition” for the two countries. But the dispute has ramifications for other countries, as well. Russia’s gas monopoly, Gazprom, exports its product to the European Union through pipelines that cross Ukraine, so when Gazprom cuts the gas flow, Ukraine can make up the shortfall by taking some of the gas intended for other European countries. Then all Europeans, not just Ukrainians, feel the chill. That’s why Europe must start finding “other sources” of gas and oil, a tricky task given that the only other ready supplier is the politically unpalatable Iran.

Ukraine says it hasn’t touched a drop of the gas intended for Europe, said Yves Bourdillon in France’s Les Echos. Eastern European countries are getting less gas than they need, but Ukraine says that’s because Russia has reduced its deliveries to make Ukraine look like a thief. The EU, meanwhile, “doesn’t want to get involved.” The Czech Republic, which currently holds the rotating EU presidency, said the problem is “a commercial dispute,” not a political one.

That’s a big mistake, said Roger Boyes in Britain’s The Times. We have “bought into the myth that Gazprom is a normal commercial concern.” In reality, the reductions in gas flows have nothing to do with gas prices. If they did, “Moscow could have initiated serious talks about long-term supply contracts rather than engaging in annual price wrangles.” The Russian gas giant is actually “a political weapon” that the Kremlin deploys in its battle to prevent the EU and NATO from absorbing Ukraine, a former Soviet republic that Russia feels should still be its vassal. It wants the EU to see Ukraine as untrustworthy.

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In this dispute, “determining who is right and wrong is a futile process,” said James Marson in Britain’s The Guardian. Yes, Russia is mingling commerce and geopolitics, but “the opacity and corruption of business in Ukraine” is part of the problem, too. Ukraine is simply going to have to find a way to pay market price for the gas it needs. It can’t keep playing the increasingly tired “Kremlin ‘evil empire’ card.”