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.
