Putin will not be rewarded for his goodwill gestures. They will be seen as weakness and stupidity. And frankly they are right. It is a stupid ad weak thing to do.
But a very christain thing to do.
It is funny that the idea that Russia might give a discount to Poland shows weakness... rather than understanding or compassion.
The price of gas has gone up not because it costs more to extract or deliver, but because of the end of long term contracts and short term speculation on the market... it is a disease of the west that is currently damaging them, so it is funny and also rather sad that they might declare victory over Russia for Russia being compassionate to them despite their hate and venom they spit every day.
Turn the other cheek... it clearly is just words for Europeans it seems.
Yeah right! Russia has been showing this very thing for the past 30 years, and what did they got in return from Europe?
The wish for revenge or to punish is huge, but where will it get Russia?
If Europe can't afford Russia gas they will spend money and make efforts to find cheaper alternatives, or they will just learn to use less energy... neither of which would be good for Russia.
Why lose? Russia has the gas and will always have the gas, but do you think Russian gas was always destined to be sold to Europe?
In about 30 years most of Europe has committed to ending the use of fossil fuels... if Russia can manage things well it could convert them to nuclear where they take away the waste and reprocess it as fuel to sell back to them, but one way or another sales of gas and oil has a limited lifetime as a general fuel widely used. It will still be used as a lubricant or for cooking or whatever... but mass use likely does not have a long future if we are lucky and our plans work out as we hope.
If Europe thinks Russian gas policy is too hard for them, they can always decide not to renew the contracts once they expire and stick that soft freedom gas deep down both of their holes.
The funny thing is that in opposition to NSII they said that the US could sell gas to Europe to fill any shortfalls... but US gas is currently getting even better money in Asia...
Absolutely! if only Putin could understand this!
Being honourable is not about glory, it is about trust... Putin will have Gazprom sign some deals... Gazprom will still be making lots of money... the EU will keep using Russian Gas because US gas is unreliable. The EU already hates Russia... what they think is meaningless.
But maybe they will learn to appreciate them... or not... there is a whole world out there that Russia can trade and negotiate with that will not talk down to them and will share the profits and benefits evenly and fairly...
Sounds to me like Russia is the winner again.
Poland must be worried that some of the Yamal gas will move to NS2 depriving them of revenue.
Their ongoing hostility will almost certainly ensure that is the case moving forward...
Hopefully Russia asks for something in return for the cheaper gas, the Polish bastards, should not be helped at low cost.
Maybe if Poland recognised the Crimea as being Russian they could make a deal
Moldova reached a new contract with Gazprom which will deliver gas to Moldova for the next five years. Moldova seems to be quite happy of the new contract so the price that Moldova has to pay must not be that high.
Russia does not want high gas prices because that will make them stop using gas at the customer level because they wont be able to afford it... they will shift to other heating options...
Moldova that just recently elected a pro-Western government was facing major energy crisis before Russia saved them. I’m thinking that Gazprom was initially unwilling to sell cheap gas to Moldova but was forced to do so after intervention of the Kremlin.
All Russian gas is cheap. It does not cost any more now to deliver than it did when it was 200 dollars a thousand cubic metres... the only thing that changes is the profit margin, and they already make a good living on it... if they make it too expensive then European customers will stop buying it because it costs too much... so European companies will stop importing it too... factories will shut down because the energy costs make their products no longer affordable to make... that does not help Russia at all.
But today – according to the Finnish press – president Putin promised Niinistö that he will talk to Russian officials to have this decision reversed because Putin doesn’t want to see Finnish industry suffer.
This would great news for my country Finland that can continue to rape Russian forests, but oh man… what a moron this man is! I mean Putin! I don’t know why does he have this very odd, very strange desire to make goodwill gestures to countries that more or less openly detest him and Russia. Does he think he will get something in return? Does he think that these countries will like him more? If so, he is truly in idiot. These gestures are not seen as anything else than stupidity and weakness, and quite rightly so.
Now let’s see if Russian officials and government are strong enough to resist Putin. I believe that there are many good people in Russian government who have a great desire to develop Russia. I can also imagine that many of them are getting increasingly tired of Putin.
You are making a lot of assumptions there... Putin said he would allow the export of wood to Finland, but as you point out all he needs to say is that Russia introduce the same rules as Finland and demand for every area of trees felled there must be a similar area of trees planted... in fact make it double the area needs to be planted... you can still export trees to Finland but replant what you cut down with interest and we can make money and Finland get their wood and we don't lose our forests... everyone wins.
People... there is no need to insult other members just because you disagree with them.
No one has to love or even understand Putin... sounds to me like he cares about the Forests in Russia being abused by his own country... that does not sound like a bad person to me.
He might be right or he might be wrong, but there is no value in personal abuse, that is just ridiculous and honestly should be beneath adults like yourselves.