WORLD BRIEFING / EUROPE
European nations left shivering by a cutoff of Russian natural gas should form a consortium to purchase from Russia the fuel that is needed to pump the gas though Ukraine’s pipelines, Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin suggested.
For the third day in a row, Russia’s state-controlled gas giant Gazprom opened a tap near the border and asked Ukraine to send a limited amount of gas to Europe. Ukraine’s state-run gas company Naftogaz refused, saying the route Gazprom demanded would force Ukraine to shut off energy supplies to millions of Ukrainian consumers first.
The gas originally was halted in a price dispute between Ukraine and Russia.
Ukraine is also demanding Russia supply the “technical gas” needed to power compressors that push gas down the pipelines to other countries. Putin’s proposal addressed that part of the dispute.
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