Pressure: Natural gas fuel prices up 80% in Ukraine

Prediction: Ukraine will soon have an “election” on wether to join back with the Russian empire; just like what happened in Crimea. With thousands of Russian troops and tons of military hardware along the eastern border of Ukraine and Russia increasing gas prices 80 percent in the so-called sovereign nation, what do you think the percentage of “YES” votes will be?

From Ed Morrissey at Hot Air.

Over the last few days, though, Gazprom has raised gas prices by 80% to Ukraine as Russian troops still gather on their common border.

To be more specific, Russia cut out a $100 per 1,000 cubic meter discount that was agreed to with the ousted Ukraine president, and they boosted prices another $100 per 1,000 cubic meters that was – in effect – a lease payment for a naval base in Crimea. Since Russia now owns Crimea, the lease is “no longer in effect.” None of that matters to the citizens of Ukraine, who are at the mercy of the Russian government who controls the natural gas industry in the area.

From the Reuters post.

Russia raised the gas price for Ukraine on Thursday for the second time this week, almost doubling it in three days and piling pressure on a neighbor on the brink of bankruptcy in the crisis over Crimea.

The increase, announced in Moscow by Russian natural gas producer Gazprom, means Ukraine will pay 80 percent more for its gas than before the initial increase on Monday.

Prime Minister Arseny Yatseniuk said the latest move, two weeks after Moscow annexed Ukraine’s Crimea region, was unacceptable and warned that he expected Russia to increase pressure on Kiev by limiting supply to his country.

“There is no reason why Russia would raise the gas price for Ukraine … other than one – politics,” Yatseniuk told Reuters in an interview in the Ukrainian capital Kiev.

Back to Morrissey.

This isn’t just a message to Kyiv, though. It’s a message to eastern Europe as well, especially NATO partners who have begun to mobilize their own forces in response to a newly-acquisitive Russian state. Vladimir Putin wants to play hardball on economics at the least, and insists on assigning a price to a refusal to accept his new hegemony in the region.

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Steve McGough

Steve's a part-time conservative blogger. Steve grew up in Connecticut and has lived in Washington, D.C. and the Bahamas. He resides in Connecticut, where he’s comfortable six months of the year.

4 Comments

  1. scheidel21 on April 4, 2014 at 3:19 pm

    Well I am not sure that this will happen a large part of the reason the president was ousted was because he was looked at by many Ukrainians as a Russian stooge, and they supposedly knew going in that energy prices would rise.
    The steep increase may hurt, but I guess we will have to see the resolve of the Ukrainian people.



  2. bien-pensant on April 4, 2014 at 5:03 pm

    Isn’t this what happens when price subsidies are withdrawn? Are the Ukrainians now paying the market price for gas?
    Is this what is going to happen when Obamacare (health insurance) subsidies are lifted?
    ?



  3. Lynn on April 6, 2014 at 8:56 am

    I don’t mean to minimize what our forefathers sacrificed to be free, but there was at least an ocean separating them from England. Putin is a ruthless aggressor cutting off a necessity of modern life & surrounding the Ukraine with crushing power. ?This is time for Europe to wake up!



    • Dimsdale on April 7, 2014 at 2:38 pm

      It’s the handwriting on the wall….



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