Nuclear Blackmail: Why Moscow Goes Toward Kiev in Gas Talks

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Until the expiration of the transit agreement with Kiev, Moscow has less than two weeks. Negotiations are not easy due to the extremely high demands of the Ukrainian side. According to reports, Gazprom is gradually inferior to the pressure of Naftogaz; the period for which the Russian company is ready to conclude a new contract is gradually increasing.

According to the statement of the head of Naftogaz of Ukraine, the domestic monopolist has ripened to a 3-year agreement. Energy Minister Nezalezhnaya expects to “finish off” the term of the transit agreement to 5 years. Among the most important parameters of the new contract are the volumes of annual gas pumping. If you take the option "somewhere in the middle", you get about 40 billion cubic meters of gas per year.



Why is there reason to believe that Gazprom will gradually succumb to pressure and bring the parameters of the agreement to those indicated? Besides the obvious ones, like guaranteed fines and the risk of losing a critically important European market, there is one more that is not talked about directly. We are talking about "nuclear blackmail," which goes between the lines.

So, if Ukraine really stops pumping gas to Europe, this winter it itself will be left without guaranteed supplies of “blue fuel”. This means that the load on other components of the country's energy system, in particular, on nuclear energy, will increase. And with this, everything is not very good in Independence.

There are four nuclear power plants in Ukraine, which are called “evil tongues” by the “horsemen of the Apocalypse." There are certain reasons to think so. All stations are age-related, the service life of their reactors is gradually coming out, it is impossible to extend the life indefinitely. Reports of accidents and emergency situations at these nuclear power plants have become more frequent in recent years. Dmitry Marunich, representative of the Energy Strategy Fund, explains:

Firstly, there are questions to the quality of work, and secondly, already in 2023-2025 the first power units will appear, which will work out even after a major overhaul. What to do next with them is unclear. Re-modernization is a very dubious undertaking. In a good way, you need to close.


The severance of production ties with Rosatom, to put it mildly, did not benefit the Ukrainian nuclear power plant. Experts are particularly concerned about the experiments of the American company Westinghouse with attempts to adapt its fuel to domestic-made reactors.
Not only "Russian propaganda" speaks about the risk of a nuclear accident in Ukraine, but the respected specialized edition Energy Research & Social Science. According to him, in the next five years the risk of a catastrophe like the Chernobyl one is 80%! The most problematic ones are the Rivne and South-Ukrainian NPPs.

Now let’s imagine what could happen if Ukraine really begins to squeeze the maximum out of its “horsemen of the Apocalypse." The consequences of a major radiation accident will threaten not only Square, but also Europe and Russia. Nobody speaks directly about this in Kiev, but such risks are known, and they have to be taken into account by decision makers.
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  1. +5
    19 December 2019 11: 21
    Absolutely incorrect arguments. The gas must be shut off, and then prepare a report on a possible nuclear disaster, and where it will go glad. cloud. They will cover the nuclear power plants, but there will be no danger from firewood.
    1. +3
      20 December 2019 04: 17
      Quote: kriten
      Absolutely incorrect arguments. Gas must be shut off.

      Tell me, what kind of entrepreneur would deliberately refuse clients? In the best years, Ukraine bought up to 40 lard cubes from Gazprom. Now, with the collapse of the post-Maidan Ukrainian economy and a significant depopulation of the population, we will halve the figure, but 20 lard cubes are also a lot. This is 10% of all supplies to Europe. Even with a 25% discount, that's $ 3 billion. Who will refuse billions of "green".
      Therefore, Gazprom continues to negotiate.
  2. +3
    19 December 2019 17: 49
    The point here is not in the nuclear power plant, but in our bourgeois - they have at least a tuft of wool from a black sheep, and even in kerenki, but they don't give a damn about the rest, and if there was any danger from decrepit Ukrainian nuclear power plants, then all of Europe would have long ago was on the ears about the closure of these stations, but they are silent in a rag, like their Greenpeace, and all their "green" brothers.
  3. +5
    19 December 2019 21: 11
    This means that the load on other components of the country's energy system, in particular, on nuclear energy, will increase.

    Electricity cannot replace gas in any way. When trying to get warm due to electricity, residential buildings light up much earlier than nuclear power plants.



    In this video, Montyan, starting at 5.00, a real employee of the Odessa Fire Service, in simple words and with knowledge of the subject, describes what is already there, thanks to the increased gas prices. If gas still rises in price or stupidly does not become, all Ukraine will light up.
    And the nuclear power plants are really old, but all the accidents that have occurred recently have not directly affected the reactors. Fear should be, rather, the rapidly declining skills of workers (they are leaving) and the possible organization of terrorist attacks (just a virus in the control system of nuclear power plants). The country has really been under the control of the United States for 27 years, since the conclusion of the unprecedented Agreement on Cooperation between the United States and Ukraine of 07.05.1992/XNUMX/XNUMX.
    Under this agreement, all employees of the US government have diplomatic equal status and can verify whatever they like. For Europeans, an accident at Ukrainian nuclear power plants is a problem, and for Americans, a possible means of blackmailing the Russian Federation. And do not care, a new nuclear power plant or an old one. Explode the same.
    And the agreement is so odious that lately finding it in Russian is a problem.
  4. 0
    20 December 2019 09: 13
    As our cheers-media shouted - there will be no concessions and no need, Ukrainians will freeze, crawl on their knees, etc.

    But in the end, Gazprom still pays, pays, pays, bargains, and already the Magnificent himself declares - we will supply. How to agree only.
  5. 123
    +4
    20 December 2019 15: 28
    I pay tribute to the persistence of the author. hi Gazprom will pay for everything, all of you will merge .... I’ve been reading this nonsense in various variations for several months. And the arguments in support of this scenario are getting funnier. Gazprom will agree to everything, because otherwise in Ukraine everything will be bad, belay and an accident at a nuclear power plant is possible. smile I believe that we are not the only neighbor of Ukraine. Let Brussels help the Europeans, maybe But father will throw a bounty. What no? request Or their radiation does not cover? recourse Do they need to worry? winked Why the author is sure that Russia should help is not clear, the arguments, it should be noted, are so-so. feel
  6. +3
    20 December 2019 18: 30
    ... in fact, we will never know what was happening in the negotiations. And in my opinion, the unprofessionalism of Gazprom managers, who are used to solving problems with money, at someone else’s expense (gas prices have already been raised by 2020 for the population), and not with the help of intelligence.
  7. +4
    20 December 2019 23: 19
    If he accepts it, for Ukraine it is only a delay in its defeat, and not a victory ... The construction of gas pipelines, bypassing the uncontested one, will continue.
  8. +2
    20 December 2019 23: 48
    Well, another shameful concession to Ukraine is planned! And the management of "Gazprom" receives MILLION "salaries" and "bonuses"! Why, one wonders? And in Kiev, they are already celebrating the next peremogue over Russia! And the population of Russia is being "prepared" for the increase in gas tariffs!
  9. -1
    21 December 2019 07: 24
    The USA, NATO and Ukraine have broken the Kremlin's red proletarian lamps! The lamps sold the interests of RUSSIA! And so that the Ukrainian nuclear power plants do not explode, and that they do not suffer, "GOD'S GOD NOT", Europe, the Kremlin lamps are ready to pay Tribute to Ukraine! The Kremlin lamps are currently negotiating the annual size of DANI. Now do you understand why Putin was "driving the storm" to the people of RUSSIA just the other day, right now? Correctly, to divert the attention of the PEOPLE from the fact that RUSSIA is FULLY DRIVEN INTO A CORNER! Why are we spending HUGE money on the production of modern weapons? Why the PEOPLE OF RUSSIA "Pulls the VENES, straining? RUSSIA'S INTERESTS will sell, even strain, no matter how hard it is!
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