Little-Acorn
03-04-2014, 01:29 AM
The big naval base at Sevastopol, on the Crimean peninsula of Ukraine, may be one reason.
But there are also major natural-gas pipelines running from Russia, through Ukraine, to Europe, and to warmwater ports on the Black Sea.
Natural gas is one of Russia's major exports, and a source of hard cash needed to buy food, equipment, and military hardware.
If anything threatens the stability or ownership of the pipelines through Ukraine, is it any surprise that Russia reacts quickly and aggressively?
Here's an interesting article. How much is hype, and how much is fact?
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http://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/mar/03/europes-gas-supply-ukraine-crisis-russsia-pipelines
Is Europe's gas supply threatened by the Ukraine crisis?
Russia supplies about 30% of Europe's gas – should we be worried?
Jon Henley
The Guardian, Monday 3 March 2014 18.44 EST
Last December, Ukraine's now-deposed, pro-Moscow president Viktor Yanukovych abandoned a trade deal with the European Union in favour of closer ties with Russia. One of the sweeteners in the $20bn support package that helped persuade him was a steep discount – around 30% – on the price that Russia's gas giant, Gazprom, was then charging Ukraine for the natural gas on which it relies. This weekend, as relations between the two countries descended to an alarming new low, Moscow warned that the cut-price deal was unlikely to last much longer.
Gazprom, which controls nearly one-fifth of the world's gas reserves and supplies more than half of the gas Ukraine uses each year, insisted the threatened price rise merely reflected cash-strapped Ukraine's inability to meet its contractual obligations. The state-owned company said that Kiev owes it $1.55bn for gas supplied in 2013 and so far in 2014, and shows little evidence of paying up. But this is not the first time Russia has used gas exports to put pressure on its neighbour – and "gas wars" between the two countries tend to be felt far beyond their borders. Russia, after all, still supplies around 30% of Europe's gas.
In late 2005, Gazprom said it planned to hike the price it charged Ukraine for natural gas from $50 per 1,000 cubic metres, to $230. The company, so important to Russia that it used to be a ministry and was once headed by the former president (and current prime minister) Dmitry Medvedev, said it simply wanted a fair market price; the move had nothing to do with Ukraine's increasingly strong ties with the European Union and Nato. Kiev, unsurprisingly, said it would not pay, and on 1 January 2006 – the two countries having spectacularly failed to reach an agreement – Gazprom turned off the taps.
The impact was immediate – and not just in Ukraine. The country is crossed by a network of Soviet-era pipelines that carry Russian natural gas to many European Union member states and beyond; more than a quarter of the EU's total gas needs were met by Russian gas, and some 80% of it came via Ukrainian pipelines. Austria, France, Germany, Hungary, Italy and Poland soon reported gas pressure in their own pipelines was down by as much as 30%.
http://www.lonelyplanet.com/maps/europe/ukraine/map_of_ukraine.jpg
http://www.voltairenet.org/IMG/png/Russian_pipelines.png
http://en.ria.ru/images/15520/63/155206369.jpg
But there are also major natural-gas pipelines running from Russia, through Ukraine, to Europe, and to warmwater ports on the Black Sea.
Natural gas is one of Russia's major exports, and a source of hard cash needed to buy food, equipment, and military hardware.
If anything threatens the stability or ownership of the pipelines through Ukraine, is it any surprise that Russia reacts quickly and aggressively?
Here's an interesting article. How much is hype, and how much is fact?
---------------------------------------------
http://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/mar/03/europes-gas-supply-ukraine-crisis-russsia-pipelines
Is Europe's gas supply threatened by the Ukraine crisis?
Russia supplies about 30% of Europe's gas – should we be worried?
Jon Henley
The Guardian, Monday 3 March 2014 18.44 EST
Last December, Ukraine's now-deposed, pro-Moscow president Viktor Yanukovych abandoned a trade deal with the European Union in favour of closer ties with Russia. One of the sweeteners in the $20bn support package that helped persuade him was a steep discount – around 30% – on the price that Russia's gas giant, Gazprom, was then charging Ukraine for the natural gas on which it relies. This weekend, as relations between the two countries descended to an alarming new low, Moscow warned that the cut-price deal was unlikely to last much longer.
Gazprom, which controls nearly one-fifth of the world's gas reserves and supplies more than half of the gas Ukraine uses each year, insisted the threatened price rise merely reflected cash-strapped Ukraine's inability to meet its contractual obligations. The state-owned company said that Kiev owes it $1.55bn for gas supplied in 2013 and so far in 2014, and shows little evidence of paying up. But this is not the first time Russia has used gas exports to put pressure on its neighbour – and "gas wars" between the two countries tend to be felt far beyond their borders. Russia, after all, still supplies around 30% of Europe's gas.
In late 2005, Gazprom said it planned to hike the price it charged Ukraine for natural gas from $50 per 1,000 cubic metres, to $230. The company, so important to Russia that it used to be a ministry and was once headed by the former president (and current prime minister) Dmitry Medvedev, said it simply wanted a fair market price; the move had nothing to do with Ukraine's increasingly strong ties with the European Union and Nato. Kiev, unsurprisingly, said it would not pay, and on 1 January 2006 – the two countries having spectacularly failed to reach an agreement – Gazprom turned off the taps.
The impact was immediate – and not just in Ukraine. The country is crossed by a network of Soviet-era pipelines that carry Russian natural gas to many European Union member states and beyond; more than a quarter of the EU's total gas needs were met by Russian gas, and some 80% of it came via Ukrainian pipelines. Austria, France, Germany, Hungary, Italy and Poland soon reported gas pressure in their own pipelines was down by as much as 30%.
http://www.lonelyplanet.com/maps/europe/ukraine/map_of_ukraine.jpg
http://www.voltairenet.org/IMG/png/Russian_pipelines.png
http://en.ria.ru/images/15520/63/155206369.jpg