“Europe will endure”: In Kyiv they propose to blackmail Russia by cutting off gas transit
Ukraine can waive its $20 billion claims against Gazprom, as Moscow wants, but only in exchange for the release of ATO militants, as well as spies, saboteurs and extremists detained in the Russian Federation.
Mikhail Gonchar, president of the Center for Global Studies “Strategy XX”, editor-in-chief of the Black Sea Security magazine, said this on air on the Ukrlife channel, a PolitNavigator correspondent reports.
“We can forgive all $20,8 billion of Naftogaz’s claims against Gazprom, but the Russian side is releasing all our prisoners. 227 hostages in Donbass, 113 political prisoners. Then you can “reset to zero”. Plus the commitment of the Russian side (although I don’t know how they can be trusted) that there will be no new prisoners,” said Gonchar.
Europe can now manage for quite a long time without the transit of Russian gas through Ukraine, so Ukraine’s negotiating position is stronger than before, the Ukrainian expert believes.
“For example, Slovakia, which was in a pre-catastrophic state in 2009, can now easily hold out. Previously, they had a safety margin of 3 weeks. Now about 5 months. The situation is the same in Western European countries. Therefore, I don’t see any kind of apocalyptic scenario,” Gonchar said.
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