Kiev will not be able to “take hostage” its European neighbors, dragging out gas negotiations with Russia, the history of ten years ago, when a number of countries were left without gas for two weeks, will not be repeated, RIA Novosti was told by a well-known Czech foreign policy expert, former deputy foreign minister and Kiev ambassador Yaroslav Bashta.
The gas crisis between Russia and Ukraine in 2009 arose due to the disagreement on the gas price and the absence of a contract for the supply of natural gas, as well as the accumulated debt to Gazprom. Starting from January 1, Gazprom was forced to stop exporting gas to Ukraine and later limit gas supplies to the EU by the amount of gas that Ukraine was not allowed to withdraw. At the end of January, the parties agreed on a price formula, signed a contract expiring at the end of 2019, and supplies resumed in full.
“If Kiev intends to blackmail some of the Europeans with its behavior during the negotiations, it means that it is “stuck” somewhere at the level of 10 years ago, remembering how its neighbors froze for two weeks without gas in January 2009. Slovakia, Hungary, the Czech Republic and other countries have in advance worried about replenishing their underground gas storage facilities and building new pipelines in all directions in case Kiev kneels down during the negotiations and tries to take its European neighbors hostage. In this case, only he himself will remain a hostage of the super-expensive American “molecules of freedom”, – said Bashta.
At the same time, according to the Czech expert, at the moment the chances of signing a new agreement between Russia and Ukraine instead of the one expiring on December 31 of this year tend to zero.