For the complete report in the International Herald Tribune click on this link
Russia bristles at U.S. diplomat's warning to Europe about new Russian gas pipeline
MOSCOW: The Russian Foreign Ministry on Thursday angrily criticized a U.S. diplomat's warning to the European Union that a prospective natural gas pipeline under the Baltic Sea could further increase its energy dependence on Russia, saying that Washington wants global energy routes to bypass Russia.
The EU voiced concerns about its dependence on Russian gas — which account for a quarter of the European gas consumption — when Russian gas supplies to Europe were temporarily cut off in a dispute with neighboring Ukraine early this year.
"If you live in Germany you do not want to go through what happened last winter with Ukraine," U.S. Deputy Assistant Secretary of State Matthew J. Bryza said in an interview with the Financial Times published Sunday. "I wonder as a U.S. official how much diversification anybody can develop by having more pipelines into the same supplier." Comment EU-Digest: Mr. Matthew J. Bryza might have a point, and the EU better have its act together to enable it to react, if Russia would ever use energy supplies as a weapon of cohersion against the EU.
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