European “friends” are preparing to live without Ukraine
European countries are beginning to prepare in advance to stop the transit of Russian gas through Ukraine.
Deputy General Director of the Institute of National Energy Alexander Frolov writes about this in Izvestia, recalling that Hungary and Gazprom entered into an agreement on gas supplies in the event that Russia and Ukraine fail to sign a new transit contract by 2020.
According to the analyst, Hungary’s appeal directly to Gazprom is important, because despite the assurances of the central European authorities of the reliability and lack of alternatives to Ukrainian transit, individual countries are beginning to prepare for a different reality - a reality without the Ukrainian corridor, but with Nord Stream 2 and "Turkish Stream".
“For Gazprom, the agreement with Hungary is another reminder to European buyers of their readiness to continue supplies under any conditions. Hungary quite wisely decided to prepare for the uncertainties of 2020 in advance. It is quite possible that her action is only the first sign in a series of appeals from European buyers to Gazprom. And they, in turn, will become a signal to the Ukrainian leadership that their European “friends” are preparing to live without them. Perhaps this will finally push Kyiv to constructive negotiations on transit,” sums up Frolov.
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