|
Russia proposes gas price hike for Georgia as crisis continues
2006-11-02
Russia said it planned to double its price for gas sold to Georgia -- raising the specter of last winter's "gas war" between Moscow and Kiev -- after bilateral crisis talks failed to resolve tensions and end a Russian blockade. "The price of 230 dollars is contained in the proposal sent yesterday to Georgia," Gazprom spokesman Denis Ignatyev told AFP, referring to a benchmark price for 1,000 cubic meters (35,300 cubic feet) of natural gas. The proposed price for next year would represent a more than doubling of the 110 dollars per 1,000 cubic meters currently paid by Georgia, though Ignatyev said it was open to negotiation. Word of the proposal came as high-level talks failed to resolve a bitter dispute that began when Georgia arrested four Russian military officers in September and accused them of spying. Although the officers were soon released, Russia slapped a sweeping economic embargo on Georgia and has been deporting illegal Georgian immigrants from Russia by the planeload in recent weeks. Georgian Foreign Minister Gela Bezhuashvili, who met his Russian counterpart Sergei Lavrov in Moscow Wednesday for the first major talks on the crisis, decried Gazprom's announcement as "political" but said it came as no surprise. The proposal "is based on politics rather than economics," Bezhuashvili told Georgia's Rustavi-2 television. In January, a "gas war" between Moscow and Kiev began with a standoff over gas prices amid tense diplomatic relations and culminated in Gazprom's briefly cutting gas supplies to Ukraine, leading to supply drops in Europe as well. Still, Bezhuashvili said he had "reassurances" from Lavrov that Russia would not cut gas or electricity to its southern neighbor, which is heavily dependent on Russian energy, this winter. "We hope that will be the case," the minister added. In London, the international ratings agency Standard and Poor's said late Thursday that the effect of a price increase on Georgia's economy "would likely be modest, at only about 1.1 percent of GDP" or gross domestic product. Georgian officials, the agency noted, had "expected such a hike and taken precautionary measures to ensure alternative sources of gas are available, including the rehabilitation of pipelines from countries other than Russia." In Moscow, Bezhuashvili expressed disappointment following his talks with Lavrov, which brought no apparent progress on key bilateral disputes. "Frankly, I didn't get an answer," Bezhuashvili said, referring to attempts to clarify Russian charges that Tbilisi was pursuing an "anti-Russian policy". "What I got was a list of things they expect us to deliver to meet their criteria for easing our relations." That description matched the Russian foreign ministry's brief statement on the talks, which said: "The Russian side once again explained in detail the circumstances under which Russian-Georgian relations might return to a normal course." The Georgian minister hit out at Russia for a sweeping economic embargo it imposed even after Tbilisi released the four Russian officers, saying Georgia would suffer "both in the short and the long run." The sanctions compounded a Russian ban earlier this year on Georgian wine and mineral water -- the country's two main exports. Bezhuashvili also slammed Moscow for its campaign against Georgian businesses and the deportation of about 1,500 Georgian citizens, calling it "unacceptable xenophobia". Wednesday's talks also seemed to have deadlocked over the so-called "frozen conflicts" in the Georgian regions of Abkhazia and South Ossetia. Georgia has been riled by what it sees as Russian backing for the breakaway regimes there, while Moscow accuses Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili of planning military action to reimpose central control. Relations between the two countries have been tense ever since the US-educated Saakashvili came to power in 2004. He has sought to wrench Georgia from Moscow's orbit and move toward NATO and European Union membership.
| 
