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Speaking about the 2009
gas conflict with Ukraine, Vladimir Putin said that Russia
"has never failed
to abide by its commitments" and tried to prove this statement by a simple
mathematical exercise.
"Ukraine did not want to
sign a new contract with Russia, and the old one had expired,"
Mr. Putin said,
"and without signing a new contract, they began siphoning certain volumes of gas
from the export pipeline in the winter. At first, we tolerated this, simply
indicated to them that this was unacceptable. We tolerated it for some time, and
then said that every day, we will reduce the amount of gas pumped equal in
volume to the amount illegally taken – essentially stolen. They stole one
million cubic meters one day, so the next day, we reduced the volume pumped out
by a million cubic meters. And we continued this, from day to day. Eventually,
we reduced it to zero."
Notably, the real numbers
for this mathematical exercise can be found in
an earlier speech
of Vladimir Putin. First, "on January 1, the flow of transit gas through Ukraine
amounted to 326 million cubic meters". Second, "at about 7 a.m. on
January 7" the Ukrainian transit came to full stop (or zero). Third, "86
million cubic meters was stolen" in the period between January 1 and 6. The real
numbers of President Putin result in the following equation.
326 - 86 = 0
In January 2009, Russia and
Ukraine disagreed about the origin of and payment for 86 million cubic meters of
fuel gas for Ukrainian compressor stations. The reduction of export flow of
Russian gas to Europe was suggested by Alexey Miller and
approved by
Vladimir Putin.
The case was never taken to court.
Mikhail Korchemkin
East European Gas
Analysis
Malvern, PA, USA
November 19, 2014
Reproduction or use of
materials is allowed only with reference to East European Gas
Analysis or www.eegas.com
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