Russian gas firm threatens big price hike for Georgia

Russia’s natural-gas monopoly threatened Thursday to more than double its prices for Georgia, putting new pressure on a former Soviet state that has turned increasingly toward the West and away from Moscow’s influence.

Gazprom says it wants to charge $230 per 1,000 cubic meters of gas, the price paid by European Union countries, up from the $110 it charges Georgia now.

The price is still open to negotiation, company officials said.

The Russian firm has said that such hikes are part of the process of shifting from subsidized prices for former Soviet states to a market system.

Critics say the move is intended to punish countries such as Georgia and Ukraine for pursuing closer ties with the United States and the European Union, including efforts to join the North Atlantic Treaty Organization.

Russian President Vladimir V. Putin has said that if the West wants these former Soviet states to receive gas at below-market prices, Western countries should pay for the subsidies.

Georgian Foreign Minister Gela Bezhuashvili, speaking Thursday at a news conference in Moscow, questioned how Gazprom determined what it called its market price.

“They presented it as a commercial deal, but there is a big portion of politics,” Bezhuashvili said. “We would like to see the price formula, why yesterday was $110 and today it’s $230.... If it is political, then it’s political. This is the price we pay for our choice.”

Georgia hopes to diversify by striking deals with other countries, he said. The main potential alternative suppliers of natural gas are neighboring Azerbaijan and Turkey, he said. There is also a possibility of receiving gas from Iran, another neighbor.

Relations between Russia and Georgia have spiraled downward since the 2004 election of U.S.-educated President Mikheil Saakashvili, who came to power after a nonviolent revolt dubbed the Rose Revolution.

Among the top aims of Saakashvili’s administration has been to recover authority over pro-Russia breakaway regions of Georgia.

He quickly won back control of one enclave, Adzharia, that had been ruled by a local strongman. In recent months, he has stepped up pressure on two other regions, Abkhazia and South Ossetia, which broke away from central control in wars more than a decade ago.

Moscow has peacekeeping troops in those two separatist regions and has granted citizenship to most residents of both enclaves, thereby strengthening its role as their protector. Georgia wants the Russian peacekeepers to leave, but Moscow says that would set the stage for fresh bloodshed.

“The Russians say, ‘Do not use force against your breakaway provinces,’ ” said Bezhuashvili, who was speaking after meeting Wednesday with Russian Foreign Minister Sergei V. Lavrov. “We’ve made it very clear on the highest political level that we don’t have any intentions to use force against our own citizens in Abkhazia and South Ossetia.”

The problem of the breakaway regions should be solved using “the best European models of autonomy” to guarantee collective and individual rights, but Georgia’s territorial integrity must be maintained, Bezhuashvili said.

Many observers believe that the long-term goal of the separatists in Abkhazia and South Ossetia is to merge with Russia. Russian officials deny having any designs on Georgian territory.

david.holley@latimes.com