Mikhail Krutikhin: Streams in Dreams
It doesn’t look as a coincidence. On the eve of Dmitry Medvedev’s visit to Ankara a group of Turkish experts left for Baku to prepare a comprehensive agreement on supplying Azerbaijani gas to the planned Nabucco pipeline. READ MORE
EU has no objections to Gazprom-Naftogaz takeover
The European Commission has no objections to Russia's proposed takeover of Ukraine's national gas company, despite warnings that it would harm EU interests. READ MORE
Moldova Deputy PM: Transnistria Is A European Problem
With the Lisbon Treaty, the European Union has more capacity and more powerful tools to establish more of a presence and play a more effective role in resolving Transnistria's frozen conflict, Victor Osipov, deputy prime minister of Moldova, told EurActiv in an exclusive interview. READ MORE
Gazprom, Uzbekneftegaz chiefs hold meeting in Moscow
The Gazprom headquarters hosted a working meeting between Alexey Miller, Chairman of the Company’s Management Committee and Ulugbek Nazarov, Chairman of the Uzbekneftegaz national holding company’s Management Committee. READ MORE
Norway, Russia agree on new Barents Sea border
In a surprise move, Norway and Russia agreed Tuesday to evenly divide a long-disputed area in the Barents Sea, a promising oil and gas region in the Arctic made more accessible by global warming. READ MORE
Deputy Minister: Ukrainians Treated By EU Consulates As In Communist Russia
Ukrainian citizens face a "Visa Berlin Wall" when trying to enter the EU and the visa requirement procedures of European consulates are similar to those in communist Russia, Ukrainian Deputy Foreign Affairs Minister Kostyantyn Yeliseyev told in an interview. READ MORE
Azerbaijan Arranges “Zurich-2” – Operation
Turkish State Minister Ali Babacan made an intriguing declaration in Brussels: "I was one of the authors of Zurich protocols signed with Armenia and there we reached a clear agreement that the Parties will discuss within historic committees the issues over the events of 1915. And we were ready to any results of these commissions activity". By this Babajan underlined, that Azerbaijan and other states were informed in details about Armenian-Turkish negotiations in Zurich: "I’ll say more, after we agreed with Armenia in Munich to sign protocols, I went not to Ankara, but to Baku, where I specified the position of Turkey on these issues to the President Ilham Aliyev". READ MORE
Ukraine's Election Clouds EU's Energy Future
There is little doubt that as president of Ukraine, Viktor Yanukovych will decisively shift the country's geopolitical posture, with Kiev once again moving closer to Moscow after its pro-Western and pro-EU turn of 2005. The potential consequences on the EU's energy future are serious, as 80 percent of Russian natural gas exports to Europe transit through Ukrainian territory. The country has been in repeated price disputes with the Russian state-owned gas monopoly, Gazprom, resulting in interruptions of deliveries to the Ukrainian market in January 2006 and 2009, with supplies to Europe affected both times. READ MORE
The Problems Of Yanukovych And Prospects For Ukraine
The rise of Yanukovych to power will become another challenge for Ukrainian democracy. It's obvious, he won't promote it, as democratic values are strange for him by nature and during his activity within opposition, he has hardly changed his views on policy and democracy. History is full of examples, when democrats became autocrats and there are only few of them, when it happened vice versa. Right after the elections Yanukovych allowed himself to say that he would rule the country for the following 10 years. READ MORE
Bulgarian Government Skeptical on South Stream Project
Gazprom CEO Aleksei Miller held talks in Sofia on February 16 “to activate work on the South Stream project in Bulgaria”. Bulgaria is the country most pivotal to South Stream. The pipeline is planned to run from Russia across the Black Sea to Bulgaria, and from that country to bifurcate toward central and southern Europe. READ MORE
