While Ukrainians are stripped of every last kopek to pay off their debt to the IMF and other various banksters, who wouldn't DREAM of debt forgiveness.

Yes, the Ukrainians are going to find that they were on much better terms in every respect with old Mother Russia. But they went off with the Dandy Euro, to be debauched....

And with that an end to home utility subsidies. This is what Yanukovych said no to. Ukraine is also delaying parliamentary elections to make sure all of the bankster crap is in place before elected office holders can stop it. It's an unelected technocrat who is selling the Ukrainian people down the river! None of the ill gotten loot accumulated by the Ukrainian oligarchs, since their independence, is going to be recovered, either. Every penny is coming out of the hides of Ukrainian citizens and going straight to the banksters.

In fact it was cheaper for Ukraine to reimport gas from EU that flowed through their country into EU. Russia had been extorting Ukraine for awhile now. Ukraine will have the last laugh when the US exports fracking technology to them, since Ukraine is sitting on a quarter of the worlds entire reserves.

Last edited Fri Apr 4, 2014, 08:27 AM - Edit history (1)

No it wasn't because information concerning that didn't account for the extra $100 / 1000 cu meter reduction Kiev was getting as part of the Crimea base agreement. That only came to light this week when it was ended.

Seems odd they are sitting on a quarter of the world's shale reserves when they are only the third largest in Europe - Poland has the largest.

Ukraine has Europe's third-largest shale gas reserves at 42 trillion cubic feet (1.2 trillion cubic metres), according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration.

http://www.reuters.com/article/2014/03/14/europe-shale-ukraine-idUSL6N0MB1WI20140314

Yeah, right up to the point where *their* aquifers & rivers are rendered unusable
by that wonderful technology and Ukraine's great strength as a food producer is
cut as a result ...

Russia will be laughing their heads off at the "success" of the US-Ukraine partnerships then!

It feels it must be the world's busybody interfering in everyone else's business. Carney says "We believe that markets should determine energy prices,". Ok, fine. Eliminate taxpayer subsidies for the oil companies and anybody else in the energy market.

Yet the Whitehouse has no balls when i comes to standing up against , BIG OIL/GAS, gouging the shit out of Americans at the pump and on our monthly heating bills. In Russia it's purely desperate, but here it isn't far off.

WASHINGTON—The White House on Tuesday defended U.S. sanctions against Russia amid criticism that they weren’t effective, and made a rare foray into personal investment decisions.

“I wouldn’t, if I were you, invest in Russian equities right now—unless you’re going short,” President Barack Obama’s chief spokesman, Jay Carney, said Tuesday when pressed whether Russia was shrugging off U.S. sanctions.

http://blogs.wsj.com/washwire/2014/03/18/white-house-spokesmans-advice-dont-invest-in-russian-stocks/

It could not have existed if Russia didn't decide that Ukraine would take the burden of any losses in the system, and had not Ukraine's oligarchs agreed to such an asinine agreement. Ukraine didn't even own the pipelines! It should've been up to Gazprom to handle it! But nope.

How about some critical effort focused on the burden of the little guy right here in the USA?

"SYRACUSE, N.Y. - U.S. Sen. Charles Schumer today said he will urge federal regulators to investigate the "mind-boggling'' increase in New York state electric rates this winter to see whether they resulted from price gouging or market manipulation.
Schumer said he has no evidence of wrongdoing but sees no good explanation for why consumer electric bills jumped 60 percent or more compared with last winter.

"Like you, I'm concerned that utilities are using the cold weather and the demand for natural gas to justify skyrocketing rates,'' Schumer said today. "We can't let those factors protect these multibillion-dollar dollar companies from scrutiny.''

Schumer also questioned whether wholesale energy companies manipulated electric or gas markets by withholding capacity to drive up prices.

"If this is just part of natural causes . . . and there was no manipulation there, then so be it. But many experts are worried that that is not'' the case, Schumer said."

http://www.syracuse.com/news/index.ssf/2014/04/schumer_seeks_federal_probe_of_spiking_new_york_electric_bills.html

Maybe the Russians have taken over our utilities. (It's actually a Canadian Multinational)

The chutzpa is amazing.

What is interesting is how well they control the narrative and the lap dogs take their blatherings unquestionably to be FACTS.

Then the lemmings repeat the talking points as gospel, ignorant of any other perspectives.

The mob rule yearning to be free meme works until it hits a friendly government. Then they are transformed into protestors to be crushed. Bahrain comes to mind.

...somewhere. Check Barack's desk drawers and see what's in there. Or better still, ask Hillary if she's found that lost $6 billion yet?

- That ought to buy us a little more time.......

K&R

for use of the naval base. However, you say that $385 was about what the rest of Europe paid.

If this is true, than - in fact - Gazprom was OVERCHARGING Ukraine by $100. in the contract. The $100 that Russia funded was - in reality if paid - a gift to Gazprom above the normal price. It also means that Ukraine received NOTHING for use of the naval base.

ie had all been paid:

the market price was 385
Gazprom got 385 from Ukraine and 100 from Russia

The discount from market price given to Ukraine equals Zero. If this was the only compensation for use of the naval base Ukraine got zero for that. What this was is a corrupt deal that gave Gazprom about a 25% bonus above market price for what is in reality a commodity.

for gas supplied to Ukraine. I don't know the exact manner in which it accounted for given that the state owns just over 50% of Gazprom anyway.

The actual 2010 navel base deal had a sum referred to as being $30 billion income to Kiev for the duration - c. $1 billion p.a.
I concluded that the $100 / 1000 cu. meters gas discount was on top that based on the $1 billion p.a being impossible to quantify in that way.

If the running deal gave Gazprom about a 25% bonus above market price then whoever agreed that figure couldn't have done so without their parliament's knowledge. I'm only aware of the fact that the original contract was signed by Yulia Tymoshenko
albeit with their parliament's knowledge but not permission. I don't know what happened after that including the basis on which gas prices changed as and when.

- given the claims that this was part of why she faced corruption charges. (ie it is clear this is a bonanza for Gazpron - did she get any klickback?)

The point though is that as Russia is altering (unilaterally the contract), it is fair to ask that it be renegotiated going forward -- and that they get neither a special subsidy or a special tariff - just the market price - 385 - as the WH advises. ( Ukraine may have a bit of leverage (less than Russia of course ) because the pipeline runs through Ukraine and there is no reason (if it can be delivered ) that they cannot purchase gas sent to Europe at 385 - with far less than 100 added.)

One caveat - every explanation of this has been different. As a former statistician, I usually have no problem understanding cash flows. Here, not everything written can be true at the same time. The above reflects many assumptions of what to believe. )

Try ploughing through this sometime to see what I mean : http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Russia%E2%80%93Ukraine_gas_disputes

I know from elsewhere that current transit fees are based on c. $3 / 1000 cu. meters / 100 km transited. I would guess those fees are credited in bulk to Ukraine monthly against their gas usage invoice.