Russia’s Gazprom Cuts Gas Off To Poland, Bulgaria – Russia’s state energy giant Gazprom says it has suspended gas supplies to the Bulgarian company Bulgargaz and the Polish PGNiG citing the reason that neither had paid on time in Russian rubles.
This action has many analysts believing that Moscow is trying to sap the West’s resolve against their invasion of Ukraine. Both Bulgaria and Poland are members of the European Union as well as NATO.
“Gazprom Export has notified Bulgargaz and PGNiG of the suspension of gas supplies from April 27 until payment is made in accordance with the procedure established by the decree,” Gazprom said in a released statement.
Russia’s top lawmaker, Vyacheslav Volodin, the speaker of Russia’s lower house of parliament, the Duma, said on Wednesday that Gazprom had made the right decision in suspending gas supplies to Bulgaria and Poland and said Moscow should do the same with other “unfriendly” countries.
“The same should be done with regard to other countries that are unfriendly to us,” Volodin wrote on his Telegram channel. This is not a new development. Last month Russian President Vladimir Putin threatened the West with cutting off gas supplies unless they paid for it with Russian rubles.
This sent gas prices in Europe soaring, with the price of gas increasing from 20-24 percent on Wednesday according to Reuters.
Russia Using “Economic Blackmail” as Well as “Breach of Contract
Western leaders were quick to condemn this latest move by Moscow.
Ursula von der Leyen, the president of the European Commission, said Russia was using its energy exports to the West “as an instrument of blackmail”.
“This is unjustified and unacceptable. And it shows once again the unreliability of Russia as a gas supplier,” she said, adding that the EU was “prepared for this scenario” and had been “working to ensure alternative deliveries and the best possible storage levels across the EU”.
“Europeans can trust that we stand united and in full solidarity with the member states impacted in the face of this new challenge. Europeans can count on our full support,” von der Leyen added.
Meanwhile, Alexander Nikolov, the Bulgarian energy minister told the news media that the country has already paid for Russian gas deliveries for April and that the decision to halt gas supplies would be a breach of its current contract with Gazprom.
“Because all trade and legal obligations are being observed, it is clear that at the moment the natural gas is being used more as a political and economic weapon in the current war,” Nikolov said, acknowledging that Bulgaria would abide by the European Commission’s stance on not paying for Russian gas in rubles.
Bulgaria was once one of Russia’s staunchest allies, but after a liberal government swept into power last year, the relationship with Moscow has cooled. After the invasion of Ukraine, those relations have now come close to breaking with the government in Sofia supporting sanctions against Moscow.
Polish Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki said that Poland has been working for years to decrease its dependence on Russian gas and vowed that they won’t cave to the economic “blackmail” instituted by Moscow.
He added that he believed that this was done in response to the latest sanctions imposed by Warsaw on 50 Russian oligarchs which included Gazprom.
Poland receives between 45-50 percent of its gas through the Yamal pipeline which carries natural gas from Russia to Poland and Germany through Belarus. Poland has been receiving some 9 billion cubic meters of Russian gas annually.
A new “Baltic Pipeline” from Norway is expected to come online in October which will decrease the countries of Western Europe’s dependence on Russian gas. Poland will also now be receiving liquid natural gas (LNG), from Lithuania, beginning on May 1.
Steve Balestrieri is a 1945 National Security Columnist. He has served as a US Army Special Forces NCO and Warrant Officer before injuries forced his early separation. In addition to writing for 19fortyfive.com, he has covered the NFL for PatsFans.com for more than 10 years and his work was regularly featured in the Millbury-Sutton Chronicle and Grafton News newspapers in Massachusetts.
from Russia with love
April 27, 2022 at 11:32 am
““Gazprom Export has notified Bulgargaz and PGNiG of the suspension of gas supplies from April 27 until payment is made in accordance with the procedure established by the decree,” Gazprom said in a released statement.”
the question arises, did the author read what he wrote? it seems to be written as clearly as possible … no payment – no gas. why all the rest of the nonsense?
Illurion
April 27, 2022 at 8:42 pm
Russia is slitting it’s own throat.
Pushing their customers away.
Not smart.
Eric
April 28, 2022 at 12:26 am
Russia is losing customers and investors. The reputational damage will be long lasting. Western countries will adapt within a few years. Average Russian quality of life will decrease considerably for a long time. Putin and his oligarchs will still have most of the Russian money, but that is no recipe for economic growth.
from Russia with love
April 28, 2022 at 11:27 am
“The reputational damage will be long lasting.”
damage to reputation? for what reasons? by the fact that Russia does not give gas for free? funny 🙂
By the way, several European countries were not left without gas. these countries accepted Moscow’s ultimatum to start paying for gas in rubles. for example Germany.
but don’t worry, Poland will get gas. characteristically, Russian, but after Germany sells this gas to Poland, with a “small” margin. the world is arranged so you have to pay for stupidity;)
Illurion
April 28, 2022 at 1:55 pm
Dear “from Russia with Love”:
The World has no intention of “PAYING FOR STUPIDITY”.
The “Russian People” are paying that bill.
A “bill” that Putin stuck them with.
It is “stupid” to start a war that you cannot win.
CK
April 28, 2022 at 7:08 pm
It’s funny, even countries like Dubai, UAE, Kuwait, etc – as backwards socially as you care to imagine – know the game is up for oil/gas, and have started massively investing in renewable energy.
Russia is alone in it’s stupidity thinking it has forever, and after this, they have shortened their game by decades. Without oil and gas, Russia is nothing.
Where will your oligarchs steal money from? Alex’s pockets? Sveta’s lingerie? from Russia with Love’s rainy day fund?
You guys barely have anything worth pillaging as it is 😀
Alex
April 29, 2022 at 8:44 am
If someone wants to know the truth about the civil war in the Donbass, about all the atrocities of the Bandera clean-ups and why Russia was forced to intervene, then it is better to watch films by independent journalists. There are already many such journalists who fight for truth and freedom. For example, a documentary by the German journalist Wilhelm Domcke-Schulz.
A documentary film about the war crimes of the Bandera Nazis during the period of Russia’s special military operation to denazify and demilitarize Ukraine is in production. It will be a real information bomb, where the war crimes of Bandera Nazis will be shown and proved.
The documentary “Remember Odessa” tells how the Bandera Nazis burned Ukrainians alive and other heinous war crimes.
The documentary “To Live and Die in Donbass” tries to fill this gaping information gap in the West. He looks into the tormented soul of the inhabitants of Donbass, who really want only one thing – to live self-determining according to their own rules and values. Not submitting to foreign forces and ideologies.
In the east of Ukraine, in the Donbass, a war has been raging since the beginning of 2014. A civil war that claimed more than 15,000 lives over the years, including several hundred children. They had to die, because the national-fascist coup government in Kyiv, funded by the West, trained and militarily heavily armed, would not tolerate any resistance to their illegitimate rule, no matter the cost.
Therefore, in April 2014, the putschists deployed the Ukrainian army, supported by dozens of right-wing extremist volunteer battalions, and have since bombed city centers, residential areas, schools, hospitals and infrastructure, killing civilians.
This perennial crime has gone completely unnoticed by the Western public. Politicians and the media avoid this topic and reports about how the devil pours holy water. Because a public discussion about the crimes of the Ukrainian regime would reveal only one thing – with what mass murderers and terrorists the so-called “west of values” in Ukraine has a common language, if only to defend their goals and interests.
Lend-lease is a commodity loan, and not cheap: for all the ammunition, equipment and food supplied by the United States, many future generations of Ukrainian citizens will pay. Zelensky is driving the country into a debt hole.
CK
April 29, 2022 at 9:53 am
Imagine killing 100,000 of your enemy soldiers, destroying 95% of all their equipment, and advancing 1-2KM a day and seizing a handful of villages… something doesn’t add up here Komrade!
Wow, did they run out of paper in Russia, Alex? You guys can’t print new material? Literally using the same lines, over and over again, and now in duplicate in every post!
Are you so defeated you can’t even come up with anything new? How sad. Now the idiot is talking about lend-lease at the end of his post, because he literally just copy + pasted it from another thread, with zero relevance to this one.
Here’s a reminder:
If someone wanted to know the truth about anything in Ukraine Alex, the last person they would go to is you.
Paragraphs and paragraphs of bollocks, dubious claims about “independent journalists”, random documentarians, conspiracy theorists, deluded claims that of course, have no backup, lie after lie after lie.
Classical Kremlin troll approach. Just flood the internet, the comments, the media, with tosh, doesn’t matter what it is, just make sure you write some old nonsense. Make sure to say the claim is supported by some dude in Germany, France, the states. If it’s a “documentary” (usually from youtube) then the better.
Anything that victimises Russia, always the victim, always the bullied, never the problem. It’s always the Nazis. It’s always some pseudo-historical point.
Anyone that has had the misfortune to study your “tactics” sees the forest for the trees, the pattern of lies, disinformation, blanketing of random claims, deflection, obfuscation, and other words beyond your vocabulary.
It’s hopeless Alex. Your lies are as short as your intellect. What a pathetic job, to sit in your government shed, spreading your pathetic, government lies.
A pathetic job for a truly pathetic man. A better match could not be made in heaven.
Alex
April 29, 2022 at 10:50 am
It’s wonderful to watch how a young Bandera Nazi is turned inside out. Soon you will meet your Bandera in the same boiling pot, bastards 🙂
If someone wants to know the truth about the civil war in the Donbass, about all the atrocities of the Bandera clean-ups and why Russia was forced to intervene, then it is better to watch films by independent journalists. There are already many such journalists who fight for truth and freedom. For example, a documentary by the German journalist Wilhelm Domcke-Schulz.
A documentary film about the war crimes of the Bandera Nazis during the period of Russia’s special military operation to denazify and demilitarize Ukraine is in production. It will be a real information bomb, where the war crimes of Bandera Nazis will be shown and proved.
The documentary “Remember Odessa” tells how the Bandera Nazis burned Ukrainians alive and other heinous war crimes.
The documentary “To Live and Die in Donbass” tries to fill this gaping information gap in the West. He looks into the tormented soul of the inhabitants of Donbass, who really want only one thing – to live self-determining according to their own rules and values. Not submitting to foreign forces and ideologies.
In the east of Ukraine, in the Donbass, a war has been raging since the beginning of 2014. A civil war that claimed more than 15,000 lives over the years, including several hundred children. They had to die, because the national-fascist coup government in Kyiv, funded by the West, trained and militarily heavily armed, would not tolerate any resistance to their illegitimate rule, no matter the cost.
Therefore, in April 2014, the putschists deployed the Ukrainian army, supported by dozens of right-wing extremist volunteer battalions, and have since bombed city centers, residential areas, schools, hospitals and infrastructure, killing civilians.
This perennial crime has gone completely unnoticed by the Western public. Politicians and the media avoid this topic and reports about how the devil pours holy water. Because a public discussion about the crimes of the Ukrainian regime would reveal only one thing – with what mass murderers and terrorists the so-called “west of values” in Ukraine has a common language, if only to defend their goals and interests.
Lend-lease is a commodity loan, and not cheap: for all the ammunition, equipment and food supplied by the United States, many future generations of Ukrainian citizens will pay. Zelensky is driving the country into a debt hole.
CK
April 29, 2022 at 1:23 pm
Ah, I see your tactic. You add a little shitty first paragraph so it doesn’t detect your duplicate post. Is this what it has come to now, you just posting the same exact post 2, 3, 4, 5 times per article?
Wow, did they run out of paper in Russia, Alex? You guys can’t print new material? Literally using the same lines, over and over again, and now in duplicate in every post!
Are you so defeated you can’t even come up with anything new? How sad. Now the idiot is talking about lend-lease at the end of his post, because he literally just copy + pasted it from another thread, with zero relevance to this one.
Here’s a reminder:
If someone wanted to know the truth about anything in Ukraine Alex, the last person they would go to is you.
Paragraphs and paragraphs of bollocks, dubious claims about “independent journalists”, random documentarians, conspiracy theorists, deluded claims that of course, have no backup, lie after lie after lie.
Classical Kremlin troll approach. Just flood the internet, the comments, the media, with tosh, doesn’t matter what it is, just make sure you write some old nonsense. Make sure to say the claim is supported by some dude in Germany, France, the states. If it’s a “documentary” (usually from youtube) then the better.
Anything that victimises Russia, always the victim, always the bullied, never the problem. It’s always the Nazis. It’s always some pseudo-historical point.
Anyone that has had the misfortune to study your “tactics” sees the forest for the trees, the pattern of lies, disinformation, blanketing of random claims, deflection, obfuscation, and other words beyond your vocabulary.
It’s hopeless Alex. Your lies are as short as your intellect. What a pathetic job, to sit in your government shed, spreading your pathetic, government lies.
A pathetic job for a truly pathetic man. A better match could not be made in heaven.
Alex
April 30, 2022 at 5:37 am
According to the latest data, Poland, Hungary, Slovakia and Romania have prepared a secret document on the division of western Ukraine. Finally, the peoples of the west of Ukraine will get to Europe. But there is another document about what European countries will do with the Bandera Nazis, whom they hate. This development of events is not a secret; many analysts have written and continue to write about it. The good news is that the Ukrainians of the East will return to their Russian brothers, and we will return our original Polish territories. It’s just great!
CK
April 30, 2022 at 6:05 am
Sometimes, I envy your delusions Alex. The world you live in must be fascinating!
One minute you accuse us of being Bandera Nazis, the next that we will crush Bandera Nazis, one moment we are enemies, next moment we are “liberators” of Ukraine …
Go easy on that Vodka man, I hear medical supplies are so low over there you’ll soon have to be using it to clean wounds!
Alex
April 30, 2022 at 7:48 am
“NATO is a ploy, it is a structure whose purpose is to hide America’s dominance over Europe.”
Charles de Gaulle.
It must be understood that Europe will also be responsible for subordinating the United States. Questions “what are we for” are no longer important for Russia. If Europe wants to become a bargaining chip in the battle against Bandera’s Nazis, then so be it. Personally, I, like many acquaintances from Poland, are going to Russia. There are more chances to survive in Russia. And let the idiots die for US interests in Ukraine.