Russia Wins Delay In EU-Ukraine Trade Pact -- Reuters
* Ukraine will continue to have preferential access to EU
* Russia worried about pact's impact on its industry
* Trade talks part of Ukraine peace process-EU official (Adds Ukrainian minister's quote)
BRUSSELS, Sept 12 (Reuters) - The European Union and Ukraine agreed on Friday to delay the implementation of their free-trade pact until the end of next year in a concession to Russia, which had complained its industry would be hurt by the deal.
Russia and the West are bitterly at odds over Ukraine, and the European Union and United States both imposed new sanctions against Moscow on Friday over what they say is its military backing for separatist rebels in the east of the country. Russia, which denies involvement, said it would consider retaliating.
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My Comment: Zero Hedge has a good analysis on this capitulation .... but the big reason on why Europe capitulated is this one .... Central, East Europe Brace for Energy Shortages as Russian Gas Flows Fall (Wall Street Journal)
Yup .... the above graph shows how vulnerable eastern Europe is right now to Russian gas supplies.
2 comments:
Bulgaria's total dependence on Russian gas supply is maintained on purpose. One of the fundamental shared goals of the last few governments, regardless of their declared political orientation, has been to preserve and even further increase Bulgaria's energy dependence on Russia, so Putin can keep using that leverage to turn Bulgaria into his "Trojan horse" inside the EU (this expression belongs Chizhov, former Russian ambassador to the EU).
So saying that Eastern Europe's dependence on Russian supplies is a reason to yield to Putin's demands is a self-accelerating path to full capitulation and reintegration into Kremlin's orbit.
The elites in many Eastern European countries are composed of former communist apparatchiks, who never changed their ideas or true allegiance, and now feel that the time has come when they can again announce their true goals. They will keep making sure, that breaking away from Putin's grasp will be hard and costly, but that has always been the only way to freedom. The alternative is slipping back into Putin's resurrected Soviet world in the company of tyrannical failed states like Syria and North Korea.
To maintain support for Russian separatist in Ukraine, for Assad, etc. Putin needs money now. And money is quickly evaporating - he has now started draining pension funds and redirecting the money towards current expenses. So stopping supply to Europe would be suicide, and that's why Putin again is trying "divide and conquer" - stopping supply only towards some countries, to make them feel exceptionally vulnerable and persuade them to stop supporting further sanctions. If European unity holds Putin is doomed - it's that simple. And the price of bringing him down in this way is many times lower than appeasement, which would allow him to grow stronger and come back for more.
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