The Daily Star: Cutting off EU’s gas would hit Gazprom hard

The unspoken threat to leave Europeans shivering in the cold next winter may be Moscow’s trump card in its confrontation with the West over Ukraine. But for both technical and financial reasons, the world’s biggest gas exporter would be badly hurt by any decision to cut off its main customers in Europe.Twice in the past decade, Moscow responded to natural gas price disputes with Ukraine by cutting off supplies, affecting its European clients further down its pipelines. As tensions between the West and Russia have escalated in recent weeks, the EU has begun drafting emergency measures to brace itself for another potential energy supply crisis.

Only President Vladimir Putin can decide whether another cutoff will take place, sources at Russia’s giant energy monopoly Gazprom say. But they also say the company would face unprecedented difficulty if it were to cut supplies to Europe for a prolonged period of time.
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