"A new week begins with an old message from Gazprom.
The Russian natural-gas behemoth says Europe may not be feeling the effect of Russia’s spat with Ukraine right now but boy, just wait until the weather turns.
The Wall Street Journal’s Alexander Kolyandr explains that Gazprom stopped supplying gas to Ukraine earlier this month as both sides failed to reach a compromise on price. Russia’s state-owned gas giant said it would only sell natural gas to Ukraine if it pays for deliveries in advance and stumps up $4.5 billion it owes for past deliveries.
Although Ukraine has reduced its gas consumption, Gazprom believes that when summer turns to autumn and temperatures drop, the gas that transits Ukraine from Russia to Europe will begin to be siphoned off.
This is an accusation that has been made before, in the particularly cold winter of 2009. Gazprom then cut the flow completely.
Still, Gazprom says it’s working toward making this kind of argument defunct. It’s buildingthe South Stream pipeline across the Black Sea, and says this will make Ukraine redundant as a transit country.
But despite Russia and Austria agreeing to build the final 50 kilometers of the 2,446-kilometer total length, South Stream isn’t a done deal.
Bulgaria, at the request of the European Union, has halted work on its section; Serbia is demurring, its new government making eyes at the EU.
With midsummer already in the rear-view mirror, European nights are drawing in. The winter will give Russia a new card to play".
