For the full report from the Tenerife News click on this link
Putin to the leaders of the EU: "do as you are told or we’ll not continue supplying our gas" - by Jeremy Taylor
On page 26 of the Saturday edition of a well known Madrid newspaper there is a ‘family photo’ of leaders of the twenty-five nations in the European Union, plus (in the middle of the front row) Vladimir Putin of Russia, not a member state.
One certain result of this meeting in Finland was the realisation that formulas for maintaining a European union established twenty years ago are now useless. Putin made himself ominously clear when he suggested that Europe and Russia should start again from zero, and that he would certainly use the natural gas card to enforce his will. This might be considered rude of him, since he was the sole invited guest of the Finnish presidency, but at least everybody knows where they stand now. Gas is the common factor. Energy produced by natural gas is what keeps the European Union functioning and comparatively mobile, though some observers consider the European Idea as not far from dinosaur status. Forty-five% of Europe’s gas comes from Russia,’ Putin said, and went on, ‘but 67% of our gas export goes into the European market.’
Putin said he could no longer see himself as a simple supplier of the stuff, which is the traditional European view of him and his vast country. Europe must now accept her giant neighbour as a driving force with which the Union had better agree. Or else. Russia, claims Putin, needs to play a fundamental part in the European economic structure. He felt no obligation to mention that he could no longer guarantee supplies of gas, if he were left out in the cold.
To put it another way, Putin basically said to the leaders of the EU "do as you are told or we’ll not continue supplying our gas."
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