Ukraine - Gas from Russia Needed for the Winter ... but Not Much

Ukraine has reserved $3.1 bln for winter gas needs - PM KIEV Fri Aug 22, 2014 3:45pm BST Aug 22 (Reuters) - Ukrainian state-owned gas company Naftogaz has put aside $3.1 billion to buy gas for the forthcoming winter, Ukrainian Prime Minister Yatseniuk said on Friday, warning that the country was not able to survive without supplies of Russian gas. Yatseniuk said Ukraine, to whom Russia's Gazprom cut supplies on June 16 in a row over pricing, needed a further 5 billion cubic metres (bcm) of Russian gas. Ukraine has been trying to secure more gas from the European Union and cut consumption levels from last year's 50 billion cubic metres (bcm). (Reporting by Natalia Zinets; Writing by Alessandra Prentice) http://uk.reuters.com/article/2014/08/22/ukraine-crisis-gas-idUKL5N0QS2X220140822

It doesn't look as though they're going to need a lot of gas if they're *only* after $5billion cubic metres.

Kind of confused tho.

Ukraine's not paid their bill.
They're haggling over the price.
They've got $3.1 bil put away ... and?
Are they paying their outstanding bill with this?  Does it cover what they owe? 

It says they can't survive without supplies from Russia ... but it says they only need a FRACTION of the level they previously use.

If I were Russia, I'd tell them to stuff it; pay up and get lost - no more gas, for you.  LOL

** Ukraine's up shit creek until USA get's the LNG exports happening if Russia's contracts with third parties hold, because Russia's contracts (from memory) was along the lines of *no reverse cycle*.  So if they're planning on a transit through Ukraine to a third party and back to Ukraine diversion thingy, it may not work out for them.

We'll see, I guess.

[Sorry if there's typos.  Distracted.]

SYRIA, JOHN McCAIN & ISLAMIC EMIRATE

John McCain, Conductor of the "Arab Spring" and the Caliph by Thierry Meyssan Everyone has noticed the contradiction of those who recently characterized the Islamic Emirate as "freedom fighters" in Syria and who are indignant today faced with its abuses in Iraq. But if that speech is incoherent in itself, it makes perfect sense in the strategic plan: the same individuals were to be presented as allies yesterday and must be as enemies today, even if they are still on orders from Washington. Thierry Meyssan reveals below US policy through the particular case of Senator John McCain, conductor of the "Arab Spring" and longtime partner of Caliph Ibrahim. Voltaire Network | Damascus (Syria) | 18 August 2014 John McCain is known as the leader of the Republicans and unhappy 2008 US presidential candidate. This is, we will see, only the real part of his biography, which serves as a cover to conduct covert actions on behalf of his government. When I was in Libya during the "Western"attack, I was able to view a report of the foreign intelligence services. It stated that, on February 4, 2011 in Cairo, NATO organized a meeting to launch the "Arab Spring" in Libya and Syria. According to this document, the meeting was chaired by John McCain. The report detailed the list of Libyan participants, whose delegation was led by the No. 2 man of the government of the day, Mahmoud Jibril, who abruptly switched sides at the entrance of the meeting to become the opposition leader in exile. I remember that, among the French delegates present, the report quoted Bernard-Henry Lévy, although officially he had never exercised functions within the French government. Many other personalities attended the symposium, including a large delegation of Syrians living abroad. Emerging from the meeting, the mysterious Syrian Revolution 2011 Facebook account called for demonstrations outside the People’s Council (National Assembly) in Damascus on February 11. Although this Facebook account at the time claimed to have more than 40,000 followers, only a dozen people responded to its call before the flashes of photographers and hundreds of police. The demonstration dispersed peacefully and clashes only began more than a month later in Deraa. [1] [...] CONTINUED @ SOURCE - AVAIL. DIFFERENT LANGUAGES http://www.voltairenet.org/article185085.html

This is a FANTASTIC article.

Being new to politics and without a clue to the Middle East, this is a still a little too involved for me.
But it's a great article for anyone with an interest in the area.

The stuff the US does is unbelievable.


I find all of this mind-boggling.

European Union - Ukraine, Russia & General

http://www.euinside.eu/en/analyses/is-merkel-the-new-eu-high-representative-for-foreign-affairs Found the above article interesting reading.

Blogger's Twitter take on info:

#carlbildt on Russian attack EU for/min mtg .. but, sadly, for CB view not shared by all (incl. E Comm.) ..haha didn't belive Ukr 'invasion'

Ukraine would have been carrying on about the Russian humanitarian aid convoy or the phantom 'Russian tanks' in Ukraine they 'destroyed' .. which was all bull, of course.

So just as well that there's some level headed people who don't buy the Ukr cry-baby non-sense.

Anyway, Bildt appears to have come on all strong and anti-Russian about a supposed 'violation of international laws'.  

Just as well everyone in the EU isn't Carl Bildt. 

Minsk Customs Union (> Eurasian Union) #Ukraine's #EU Assoc. Agreement regional impact looks up for discussion .. will fur fly??

Putin and Poroshenko will be at this meeting.  Don't know anything about Customs Union ... new to looking at politics.  But if the European Union Association Agreement impacts on region (Eurasia) may be a topic, it could be an interesting meeting.

Meeting's in a week.  Hoping I'll remember and follow up.

#EU Summit 1) High Rep. 2) President EU Council top jobs going .. but Bulgarian journo quiet boo abt #Merkel unofficial role re #Russia LOL

The journalist seems to begrudge what's perceived as Merkel's unofficial -- and usurping role --  regarding Ukraine & Russia, which leads to my next conclusion ...

Bulgarian journo either deluded or a propagandist re "genuinely common foreign policy' pie in the sky re #EU

#EU is supposed to override 'intergovernmentalism'? Oh, f*ck off. It's bad enough it overrides national sovereignty. Down with the #EU

This EU 'community method' and 'community' this and that is a load of garbage.

I see the EU as an extremely dangerous extra or supra-national organisation that has eroded national sovereignty and has waaaaay too much to say about way too much in politics, economics, law etc.

The EU seriously gives me the creeps.  Big time.  How did nations fall for this EU bullshit?

It's like some horror movie where you just want to scream:  Get out of the EU!  Run!!!

Sweden - 'Sweden Democrats' / Nationalists on the Rise - High: Immigration, Unemployment

Swedish nationalists rise as influx of Syrian refugees grows By Johan Carlstrom and Niklas Magnusson, Bloomberg News, Bloomberg STOCKHOLM — The Sweden Democrats, a nationalist party that targets deep cuts to immigration, is poised to double its support in elections next month as Swedes prepare for a change of government. Several polls show the party garnering more than 10 percent of votes, enough to ensure that neither the government of Prime Minister Fredrik Reinfeldt nor the Social Democrat-led opposition can win a majority on Sept. 14. Both blocs have refused to collaborate with the Sweden Democrats, even as the electorate tries to drag the group into the mainstream. Support for the party, which came into being in the 1980s following a merger of political movements including a group called Keep Sweden Swedish, has swelled as the country absorbs a growing number of immigrants and asylum seekers from the Middle East. The development casts a shadow over Sweden's reputation as an open society that has regularly topped United Nations rankings in accepting asylum seekers. "We're becoming more tolerant toward immigration, but at the same time there's very strong, broad opposition against our liberal policies," said Andrej Kokkonen, a researcher at Gothenburg University. "The Sweden Democrats have capitalized on that." Sweden expects more than 80,000 asylum seekers this year, after a 70 percent jump in the first six months. Refugees are entering the country at a pace not seen since the breakup of Yugoslavia in the early 1990s, according to the Migration Board in Stockholm. The government is urging Swedes to take a more compassionate view towards asylum seekers in an effort to turn the xenophobic tide. "I'm now pleading with the Swedish people to have patience, to open your hearts, to see people in high distress whose lives are being threatened," Reinfeldt said in a speech on Aug. 16. "Show them that openness, show them tolerance." Sweden received the most asylum applications per person in the world from 2009 through 2013, according to the UN High Commissioner for Refugees. The share of Swedes born abroad was 15.9 percent last year compared with 11.3 percent in 2000. Immigration rose 12 percent to an all-time high last year. Party leader Jimmie Aakesson, who has sought to reinvent the Sweden Democrats to make it more palatable to the broader electorate, says he wants to cut asylum immigration by 90 percent. A poll done by television broadcaster SVT in May showed 44 percent of Swedes think their country has accepted too many immigrants, up from 37 percent a year earlier. Only 10 percent want a more open policy toward foreigners. Support for the Sweden Democrats has risen to 10.9 percent from the 5.7 percent the party got in the election four years ago, according to a poll published Aug. 18 by United Minds and Aftonbladet. The three-party opposition, led by the Social Democrats, was backed by 46.5 percent, compared with 38.8 percent for Reinfeldt's four-party government, the poll showed. In European Parliament elections in May, the Sweden Democrats won 9.7 percent of the vote, matching a surge across the region for parties opposed to immigration and skeptical toward the European Union. The U.K. Independence Party and French National Front this year became their countries' biggest political groups in the European parliament. Sweden's growing support for its anti-immigration party follows a series of riots that shocked the nation. In Stockholm suburbs characterized by above-average joblessness, Swedes last year watched youths from immigrant backgrounds torch cars during street battles with police. "It's good that they address certain issues that the other parties don't really dare to do something about like immigration but I don't completely support them," said Martin Welander, 20, a business student at Oerebro University. "The other parties have tried to suffocate all criticism of immigration." Erik Wallander, 30, a system developer, describes the policies of the Sweden Democrats as "unpleasant." "People who are unemployed and don't have it so good look for someone that's easy to blame," he said. "It's pretty convenient to point to immigrants." Swedish unemployment is the highest in Scandinavia, even as a report Thursday showed joblessness dropped to 7.1 percent last month from 9.2 percent the previous month. The figures aren't adjusted for seasonal swings. A year earlier, the jobless rate was 7.2 percent. About 16 percent of people born abroad didn't have a job last year, compared with 6.3 percent for ethnic Swedes. Finance Minister Anders Borg said this month developments in Iraq and Syria mean there'll be a "significant" increase in costs that will "hit public finances." Aakesson said in an interview in May that Sweden's "mass unemployment is primarily imported." Immigration risks destroying the welfare state by creating "parallel societies" of people "that don't think of themselves as part of Swedish society," he said. Aakesson is now trying to replicate the success of other Nordic parties set on tightening immigration. In Norway, the Progress Party joined the government for the first time last year while the Danish People's Party has been a power-broker for more than a decade, shaping some of Europe's toughest immigration standards. Even some of Sweden's immigrants have started to question the nation's policies toward outsiders. Enikoe Blixt, 37, a biomedical analyst in Linkoeping who's originally from Hungary, said that while the Sweden Democrats are "too xenophobic," the country needs to be better at absorbing its immigrants. "There should be more of a requirement to learn the language and greater demands on these people that come here to really integrate into society," Blixt said. The goal is "to avoid these people from becoming segregated." http://www.chicagotribune.com/sns-wp-blm-news-bc-sweden21-20140821-story.html

Appears to be a swing to the right.

Anti liberalism.

Anti immigration platform.

800,000 immigrants expected 2014

Interesting info to add to Sweden picture/climate.

LITHUANIA - LNG supply deal with Norway inked

Lithuania, Statoil sign LNG deal to end Gazprom monopoly MENAFN - AFP - 21/08/2014 (MENAFN - AFP) Lithuania signed a deal with Norway's Statoil on Thursday to supply natural gas to the country's new terminal starting 2015, as the Baltic state strives to cut its dependence on Russian energy. Under the five-year deal, Statoil will supply an annual 540 million cubic meters to the liquefied natural gas (LNG) terminal on Lithuania's Baltic Sea coast which is due to be completed by the end of the year. The value of the deal is estimated at 2.5 to three billion litas (700-900 million euros, 1.0-1.1 billion) according to Litgas, the state-owned company in charge of LNG imports. "It is a big and important step in strengthening Lithuanian energy security," Prime Minister Algirdas Butkevicius told reporters. "For the first time in Lithuanian history, we will have a permanent alternative natural gas import source." Russia's state-owned Gazprom is Lithuania's only natural gas supplier under a deal arranged in Soviet times, when Lithuania was part of the USSR. But Vilnius has been working to diversify its gas suppliers since breaking free from Moscow in 1990 and joining the European Union and NATO in 2004. In May, Gazprom agreed to a price cut of about 20 percent, after Lithuania filed an international lawsuit. The first LNG cargo delivery is expected in December, so that the terminal at the port of Klaipeda can start commercial operations in January 2015, Litgas said. http://www.menafn.com/1093921279/Lithuania-Statoil-sign-LNG-deal-to-end-Gazprom-monopoly

Surprised it's a Norwegian company.  Thought it would be the US doing the supply.

DIRTY DOG POLAND YAPPING FOR MILTARY AID TO UKRAINE NEO-NAZI JUNTA WHILE SENDING AID TO ITS MURDEROUS SQUADS

Poland’s defence ministry is ready to send humanitarian aid to Ukraine, but is this enough? The Polish Defence Ministry has announced that it is to send huminatarian aid for Ukrainian troops, with the first such shipment of supplies billed to be sent to the westwen Ukrainian city of Lviv next week. As John Beauchamp reports, in total around 320 tons of Polish supplies are to be sent to Ukraine, such as food supplies and bedding. With the decision made on the basis of a bilaterial agreement between the respective defence ministries, questions are now being raised as to whether more direct aid from Warsaw should be sent eastwards. In the opinion of the former deputy defence minister General Waldemar Skrzypczak, military aid for Ukraine is absolutely necessary. [LMAO - US PUPPETS] “Ukraine has an economic problem because it is engaged in a conflict with Russia  [NO, ASSHOLE, IT'S SHELLING IT'S OWN PEOPLE WHO ARE DEFENDING THEMSELVES FROM A NAZI US-PUPPET JUNTA & SEEKING *INDEPENDENCE*], its state budget is in ruins and in a few months the country will have a serious problem; certainly the army, whose supplies are running out and fewer resources to fight against the pro-Russian separatists,” Skrzypczak said. http://www.thenews.pl/1/6/Artykul/179355,Poland-to-send-humaniarian-aid-to-Ukraine

What would they like to send, then?  Their army?  Nuclear weapons?  Would that be 'enough'?

Get a load of how they're sending aid ... to the Ukraine junta's forces instead of the people that are trapped without food or water, being shelled by the US puppet government.

The people who have got their hooks into Poland are a sick lot.

UKRAINE - PAVEL KLIMKIN - DERANGED LOBBYING FOR MURDER

Ukraine wants military backup from the West, suggests new Marshall Plan FAMAGUSTA GAZETTE Thursday, 21 August, 2014 Ukraine’s Foreign Minister Pavel Klimkin argues that Kiev deserves military backup from the West in its standoff with the militias of the self-proclaimed Donetsk and Lugansk people’s republics no less than Iraq. “I believe that it would be quite logical to extend technical and military assistance to Ukraine in its struggle with terrorism the way it is done in Iraq,” Klimkin told in an interview to Cologne’s daily Express on the eve of Federal Chancellor Angela Merkel’s visit to Kiev, due on August 23. “This struggle meets the fundamental interests of the European Union.”  [UKRAINE *IS* THE TERRORISM, ASSHOLE SHELLING CIVILIANS.] Also, Klimkin claims that Ukraine needs support in the political, economic and public spheres. “We need an equivalent of the Marshall Plan for Ukraine,” Klimkin said. “ After World War II the United States played the key role in implementing the Marshall Plan. These days Germany may undertake to spearhead such a historical mission.” — ITAR-TASS http://famagusta-gazette.com/ukraine-wants-military-backup-from-the-west-suggests-new-marshall-plan-p24988-69.htm

This struck me as hilarious.  Pavel Klimkin is off his head, lobbying for Iraq style intervention.

Love the bit about 'terrorism' from a ballistic shelling civilians neo-Nazi US puppet government.

Ooh, look, he's even looking for Germany to spearhead the murder of East Ukranian citizens.