26.04.09

Russia presented its own solution to the energy security problem, yesterday. According to ITAR-TASS, the document including a transit agreement was released by President Dmitry Medvedev. Medvedev's Finnish opposite number Tarja Halonen receive the first copy. Other copies were promised G8, G20, and CIS countries.

"Russia regularly brings up the matter of energy security and problems with it. Neither the Energy Charter nor other documents have offered a solution to these problems. Russia did not ratify these documents and does not consider itself bound by them therefore," Medvedev said. The offers Russia formulated aim at maintenance of the balance of interests of suppliers, transit countries, and consumers.

According to Medvedev, problems with deliveries should be handled at two levels at once: through development of new routes and through advancement of legal regulation. "Transit crisis of the early 2009 shows it plainly," the president said.

Presidential Aide Arkady Dvorkovich said that the document could replace the European Energy Charter altogether or amend it. The document in question outlined principles of international energy cooperation and elements of transit agreement (with the treaty on conflict settlement being its integral part) and listed energy products (including nuclear fuel, coal, and electric power).

Russia's disinclination to ratify the Energy Charter in its current form is regularly brought up. Moscow calls the document as it currently is unacceptable. It offers European countries free access to energy resources of Russia and Central Asia but keeps the doors to EU markets locked against Gazprom and other Russian companies.

Dmitry Abazalov, an expert with the Political Situation Center, confirmed that the Energy Charter proclaims indiscriminate access to gas pipelines but makes European markets off bounds for external companies. "Russia has already proclaimed readiness to enable foreign investors to work at Russian deposits in return for permit to Russian companies to reach the so called production end line," Abazalov said. He surmised that the document put together by Russia would promote the interests of suppliers first and foremost. The expert assumed that Central Asian countries and Russia's principal partners in Europe (namely Germany and Italy) might support the document.

Transit is the issue that worries Russia much more, these days. The Russian-Ukrainian gas war is a vivid example of how Europe is not prepared to back Gazprom even despite interrupted supplies which cost the Russian company dearly in more senses than one (damage to the image of a reliable supplier is as serious, for example, as purely financial losses).

"Regardless of the collisions fomented by the agreements to modernize the Ukrainian gas transportation framework, Moscow entertains the hopes to change the format of the Russian-European dialogue," Political Infrastructure Center Director Aleksei Mukhin said.

The impression is that Moscow aspires to the role of principal negotiator with the European Union and Central Asian countries. Finland, a country that has always been understanding with regard to the Kremlin's initiatives, is supposed to relay the essence of the document to all European countries.

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Source: RBK Daily