Russia Must Prepare For NATO Defeat In Afghanistan

Russia must prepare for NATO defeat in Afghanistan, ambassador says

Brussels/Paris: NATO is facing defeat in Afghanistan, and Russia and the states of Central Asia must be ready to pick up the pieces, Russia's ambassador to NATO said Tuesday.

Discussions at a conference in Paris on the future of Afghanistan run by the East-West Institute think tank 'have only further enhanced the impression of NATO's looming capitulation in Afghanistan,' Dmitry Rogozin wrote in a Twitter feed from the meeting.

'Russia and its Central Asian partners should be ready for such a dramatic scenario,' Rogozin wrote.

Oh for the good old days when the USSR was bogged down there and taking all the flak.

What A Gas

More problems with Russia and Europe's gas supplies: Reuters.

And from OpenEurope:

EU gas supplies suffer further cuts;

Delegation to meet Gazprom officials today

Russia has ordered further cuts in gas supplies to Europe as part of its ongoing dispute over payment from Ukraine. The Times reports that EU ambassadors predicted cuts of up to 20% at a private meeting yesterday and 10 countries have already reported reduced gas flows from Ukrainian pipelines. The Commission and the Czech Presidency dispatched a fact-finding mission to Kiev yesterday to investigate the disruptions, according to European Voice.

EUobserver states that supplies from Russia to the EU via Ukraine fell overnight by 70%. The article also states the Prime Minister Valdimir Putin ordered the cuts in supplies to the Gazprom CEO live on Russian television.

The Irish Times writes that both Moscow and Kiev have urged the EU to mediate the dispute, but it is "loath to intervene". However, a European delegation including Commission officials are due to meet executives from Gazprom, the state-owned energy firm, today in Berlin.

A leader in the WSJ argues that Europe has failed to diversify Europe's gas supplies and it has been indecisive about alternate pipelines to pursue, such as the Nabucco pipeline, which could supply gas from central Asia rather than Russia. A comment piece by Jan Rokita in the Polish daily Dziennik argues that the decision of Bulgaria and Hungary to opt for the South Stream gas pipeline project over the Nabucco pipeline project, of which they were important partners, was a major event in 2008 and came following influence from Moscow.

As usual, it seems that everyone concerned is a fuckwit.

Luckily for the UK, most of our Russian gas doesn't come via Ukraine. On the other hand, energy supply in the UK is going to prove a real problem.