GEORGIA: President Mikhail Saakashvili looks to EU support on energy security after Russian gas supplies cut following explosions

Record ID: 643411

  • Title: GEORGIA: President Mikhail Saakashvili looks to EU support on energy security after Russian gas supplies cut following explosions
  • Date: 24th January 2006
  • Summary: CLOSE UP CHILDREN WARMING THEIR HANDS NEAR AN ELECTRIC HEATER; SAAKASHVILI WITH CHILDREN (2 SHOTS)
  • Embargoed: 8th February 2006 12:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: Georgia
  • Country: Georgia
  • Topics: Domestic Politics,Energy
  • Reuters ID: LVA8926KK1VE2I0V05NATPSIKOWJ
  • Story Text: Georgians spent a second night on Monday (January 23, 2006) without gas supplies and with partial supplies of electricity, after an explosion shut off supplies from Russia which Georgian officials accused of deliberately triggering an energy crisis in its small ex-Soviet neighbour.
    President Mikhail Saakashvili, visiting an orphanage in Tbilisi on Monday night, told reporters the shut off of Russian gas and electricity supplies highlighted the urgent need for secure energy supplies in the region.
    "The whole thing (gas pipelines blown in explosions) showed that energy security in the region is the issue. We need to think, all of us. I have been consulting very tightly with the Ukrainian president, with other regional actors, with Azeri president. And we are going back to the European Union saying find the way to exclude this kind of extreme situations not only in this region, but everywhere else in Europe," said the Georgian president.
    Russia says Sunday's two explosions in its North Ossetia province, knocking out the main pipeline taking gas to Georgia, were the work of pro-Chechen insurgents and warned Georgian leaders to tone down their rhetoric. The supply cut is the latest to hit Russia's ex-Soviet neighbours, some of which say the Kremlin is using energy supply as a political weapon against those which have opted to shift towards the West and away from Moscow's sphere of influence.
    Officials with Russian gas monopoly Gazprom GAZPPE.RTS said the company was pumping an extra 2-3 million cubic metres a day to Azerbaijan for Georgia which is experiencing an unusually harsh winter. Georgia's relations with Moscow have been prickly since a pro-West government took power two years ago with officials often charging the Kremlin of meddling in the affairs of the country it once ruled.
    On Monday night, a small crowd of Georgians held a candlelit vigil outside Russia's Caucasus military headquarters in Tbilisi, calling on Moscow to stop meddling in their country's affairs and end its hostile policy in the region.
    "The main demand of the people standing behind me is to state to the Russian politics (politicians), whole Russian government to give Georgia gas, first of all, and to implement friendship policy. We want to state to Russia to implement friendship policy, to act as a friend of Georgia and not as enemy," said Irakli Kavtaradze, a Tbilisi resident.
    On Sunday, President Mikhail Saakashvili called it "outrageous blackmail", likening it to a contract dispute earlier this year in which Russia cut off gas to another West-leaning neighbour, Ukraine.
    In the process of that dispute, Russian gas supplies fell to major customers in western Europe, sparking concerns there about a growing dependency on Russia for energy.
    Ukraine officials have accused Russia of using its crucial energy supplies to punish those ex-Soviet states which are trying to integrate with the West. Russia is the world's largest gas producer and runs a close second to Saudi Arabia as the world's biggest oil exporter.
    Moscow rejected Georgian accusations, warning the country's leadership that it was risking relations with Russia.
    The explosion came just after further talks between Georgian and Iranian officials about a possible gas pipeline to Armenia and on to Georgia. The United States is against the plan.
    Georgia also has an agreement to buy gas, at a steep discount to world prices, from a pipeline running through its territory between Azerbaijan and Turkey and due to be completed towards the end of this year. Analysts say that deal would greatly reduce Georgia's dependence on Russian gas.
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