[Sixstrings]

Russia to cut off Europe's gas:

It Begins: Gazprom Warns European Gas "Supply Disruptions" Possible

We had previously warned that Putin's "trump card" had yet to be played and with Obama (and a quickly dropping list of allies) preparing economic sanctions (given their limited escalation options otherwise), it was only a matter of time before the pressure was once again applied from the Russian side. As ITAR-TASS reports, Russia's Gazprom warned that not only could it cancel its "supply discount" as Ukraine's overdue payments reached $1.5 billion but that "simmering political tensions in Ukraine, that are aggravated by inadequate economic conditions, may cause disruptions of gas supplies to Europe." And with that one sentence, Europe will awaken to grave concerns over Russia's next steps should sanctions be applied.


http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2014-03-04/it-begins-gazprom-warns-european-gas-supply-disruptions-possible

[Quinny]

Maybe it's because I am very PO centric in my thinking, but I believe Gas is more of a factor in the conflict than is generally being assumed.

I understand about 80% of EU's gas imports from Russia come via the Ukraine and there have been major problems in the past with mis-appropriations of gas intended for EU by Ukraine. Don't know what the impact would be if Russian gas was stopped, as there are limited transport issues, think it would be mainly heating, but am unsure of dependence on gas for electrical power generation.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Russia%E2%80%93Ukraine_gas_disputes