PRESS RELEASE
Kiev Has Now Launched a Gas and Water War
April 14, 2014 (EIRNS)—Under the watchful eye of the British Empire and the Obama administration, Ukraine, now under control of neo-fascists and those who are virulently anti-Russia, has created a breakdown situation vis-á-vis the gas and water supply in the region. The Crimea Inform news agency has quoted Crimea's First Vice-Premier Rustam Temirgaliyev telling journalists today that Kiev has reduced the water supply to Crimea on the North Crimean canal from 50 cubic meters per second to 16 cubic meters per second, a 75% cut of the supply!
Temirgaliyev said Ukraine's Acting Deputy Head of the Presidential Administration Andriy Senchenko was behind issuing a direct order to cut off water supplies to the peninsula, which recently rejoined the Russian Federation.
Temporary water shortages have caused irrigation problems in Crimea's Saksky district because early varieties of ground vegetables require special watering at this time of year. A Similar Life-Threatening Provocation May Occur With Crimea's Gas Supply.
On April 12, chief executive of Naftogaz Ukrainy, Andrei Kobolev, addressed his company's outstanding Russian gas bills in the domestic press and claimed payments were suspended until Kiev and Moscow could agree to new prices. Kobolev said it was unjustified and unacceptable that Ukrainian gas prices had risen from the discounted rate of $268.5 (€193.3) per 1,000 cubic meters to around $485 per 1,000 cubic meters. "Accordingly, we have suspended payments for the period of the price negotiations," Kobolev was quoted as saying in an interview with Ukraine's Zerkalo Nedely newspaper. Naftogaz was already behind on its Russian bills, but had not formally announced a suspension of payments earlier.
Russia's Gazprom and President Vladimir Putin had already raised the issue of non-payment from Ukraine last week. On April 10, Putin was quoted as saying he was "extremely concerned about the situation surrounding Ukraine's gas debt and the transit of gas to Europe." Gazprom put the total outstanding debt at $2.2 billion, saying Naftogaz had also missed the deadline for its March installment.
