El Pais: EU adopts a role of arbiter in post-Soviet states

• 20.11.2009, 11:08

The new president of the European Union will face significant challenges in the post-Soviet states.

One of the challenges is consequences of a possible gas war between Ukraine and Belarus.

“Nobody in Kiev can forecast whether Europeans will have a peaceful sleep in January 2010 without fear that Gazprom can cut off gas supplies for two weeks as it was in last January,” Spanish El Pais daily writes. The main question is whether Gazprom will issue a fine to Ukraine for the contracted gas volume in 2009 and when it may happen. “It is considered that this issue is rather political than economic. Moscow uses the Ukraine’s debt to influence the January 17 presidential elections or policy of a future president,” correspondent Pilar Bonet writes.

President of Ukraine Viktor Yushchenko sent a letter to Russian president Dmitry Medvedev last week proposing to review terms of gas agreements. The newspaper regards this step as an “open attack on Timoshenko ahead of her meeting with Russian PM Vladimir Putin in Yalta”. Timoshenko seeks Putin’s support: it allowed finding compromise in January and resuming gas supplies to Europe; this time it must make Gazprom reject fines and agree on increasing gas transit tariff.

As the newspaper notes Ukraine has fund itself in a difficult financial situation: the IMF and EBRD frozen financing because “Ukrainian leaders does not carry out the promised reforms and do not guarantee the reforms will be conducted.” “The European Union, in turn, ignored Putin’s calls to collect some money and help Ukraine to pay for gas,” Bonet writes concluding that the EU is being involved in conflicts in ex-Soviet state more and more often.