At what price?” “” “

The Ukrainian Parliament passed a vote of no confidence in the government of premier Yuri Yekhanurov on 10 January, rejecting the deal struck by the government on Russian gas, reached by President Yushenko after hard bargaining with the Russian gas monopoly Gazprom. The government of Ukraine has however said that it will remain in office until the general elections on 26 March. The crisis was triggered by Russia’s decision last week to turn off the taps of the gas pipelines that pass through Ukraine, motivating its decision by the accusation of theft, because Kiev had refused to accept the steep rise in prices (from 50 to 230 dollars) demanded by Moscow. The decision will have inevitable repercussions in all Western European countries, the customers and recipients of Russian gas, with reductions in supplies and the risk of further price rises. The EU had also intervened in the crisis, expressing the hope for “a negotiated solution that would safeguard long-term energy supplies both in the region and in Europe as a whole”. The new deal struck between Russia and Ukraine fixed the price at 230 dollars for a thousand cubic metres of methane, even though, in actual fact, thanks to collateral accords, the real price would be just above 100 dollars. We sounded out some comments in Ukraine. AN INDEPENDENT COUNTRY. The fall of the government was almost a foregone conclusion, according to Father PAVLO VYSHKOVKYY, of the social communications office of the Ukrainian Bishops’ Conference, given that “the opposition judged the government harshly, saying it ought not to have signed the deal. It argued that the old contract that sold the gas to Ukraine at a price of 50 dollars was still in force and would have remained so for many years. And since Russia broke the contract, the opposition insisted that Russia should respect its accords”. After the fear of a cold winter following Russia’s threats to “turn off the gas supplies”, now “the Ukrainian population has finally been tranquillised and has returned to normal life – says Father Vyshkovkyy -. But many were able to see with their own eyes that the ‘paternal’ attitude of Russia can no longer be trusted, because that ‘father’ would have liked to deprive his ‘children’ of heat at the very height of winter. That’s why many people are ever more convinced of Ukraine’s choice to follow the road to the West and not to a new Soviet Union”. The deal reached a few days after the Russian threats, according to Fr. Vyshkovkyy, “had shown Ukraine’s ability to dialogue with a strategic partner like Russia. It had shown, for the second time after the Orange Revolution, that we are an independent country. We have not tagged onto Russia despite the fact that it used its powerful weapon of gas to try once again to force us to yield to its authority. And just at the height of winter!”. THE IMPORTANCE OF THE WEST. “In Ukraine – points out MYROSLAV MARYNOVYCH, vice-rector of the Ukrainian Catholic University – there’s a sort of unanimous attitude to the Russian position, which is seen as too hardline and too politically determined”. According to Marynovych, it’s “too obvious” a position, “too insincere in its motivations”: Any Ukrainian is able to grasp that the pressure exerted is due to the fact that the Russians want to maintain their controls over the supplies of gas that pass through the Ukraine”. “We cannot agree with the exaggerated increase in the gas price demanded by Russia – says Marynovych -. Yet we are conscious of the need to pay more for the gas and that it would be better for the independence of the Ukraine if we paid the normal European or world price. But it’s a process that needs to be taken forward at the right time, in a gradual manner”. “The Ukrainians – he explains – resist with force but at the same time proceed with caution because we know how important the West is for us. We know that Europe depends on Russian gas and we understand the logic of this because we too depend on it. We fear however that some in the West may consider the Ukrainian position mistaken because they think we wish to pay for the gas at very low prices. But we know that this ended with the end of the Soviet period. What we now want is not to surrender to the pressures of the increases demanded of us, otherwise any country would end up destroyed. This would become a war, not trade”. Marynovych hopes that “Europe may not be exclusively dependent on Russia. We understand that Italy, for example, cannot acquire gas exclusively from Ukraine, because it has its own economic and commercial interests, but we would like her not just to pay attention to Russia’s arguments”. “I am sure the Russians will understand that they too depend on Europe and on the rest of the world – he concludes -. Our world is now interdependent and no one can behave like a bull in a china shop. Russia too depends on her customers”.