The article in this weeks Economist lay the blame on both, and stated flat out that Ukraine should be paying more for gas than it is.

Well, apparently this is a problem that reoccurs every time the rates are to be renegotiated. I'd rather say that both sides are totally unwilling to go into middle-ground.

If russia owns the gas and the europeans think it costs to mcuh go buy ti elsewhere, if you can't then buy russian gas


supply/demand

little supply high demand = high prices

The Russians learned well from the capitalist, and the oil rich nations. I guess the European nations have forgotten how capitalism works and are now more socialist than Russia.

It gets mucked up because they're treating this as more than a transaction and as a political power play...

Boys will be boys.

The question was, how is it being reported on in other parts of the world.
Here in California at my local paper Contra Costa Times, (*no relation to the New York Times), it was matter of fact as the Russians want more money and they are trying to put the screws first to the Urkanians as their goal is fairly clear that they will want to annex the Ukraine eventually back into Russia. This is just an economic method to cause havoc and weaken the current governments there.

It only took the Russians 18 years to get back on its feet and back in the World Power game and in the worse/best timing just when the USA is at its all time low. I'm thinking Russia will be an empire again hopefully not....

I've heard it mostly as a blame-Ukraine-for-being-stupid thing, actually.

yeah i read it as Ukraine were taking the piss a bit

Read? So, print news? What source?

Interesting, where was that trim101?

In Croatia, we are actually affected by the gas-shortage. Our press is neutral, saying both Russia and Ukraine is to blame for being stubborn and slow to negotiate, while EU proves how impotent and inefficient it can be in time of crisis.

I must admit I had thought the EU would have been more strict on the issue. After all, we're currently under a Czech presidency, and the last data I saw said that there having problems due to it as well.
Still, hopefully someone will be done soon.

hmmmmmmm dammit cant remeber now, was a couple of newspapers bit of bbc etc kinda got the impression that ukraine were messing about because this started a while ago with russia accusing ukraine of stealing gas meant for other countries

The EU-Russia Diplomacy is rather complicated.

One thing is, that for internal reasons, Russia doesn't want a good relation with the EU. They would like to have the EU as enemy, because that makes internal politics easier. However, since the EU doesn't have a president like the USA, it is rather difficult to portrait the EU as an enemy.

For the EU this is a problem. They could take a more firm position, but that would strengthen the idea of enemy in Russia. So, it is likely they will continue with negotiations, without firm statements.

However, for the long term this is really bad for Russia. The EU will not see Russia as a reliable trade-partner anymore. Alternatives? Windmills, nuclear power, solar power in the Sahara. Russia might think that there is no alternative, but that is an arrogant mistake, although it will take a time to get alternatives.

Lucas