Russia cut gas to Europe

On 6 January 2009 Russian energy company Gazprom cut the amount of gas sent to Europe through Ukrainian pipelines by two-thirds, accusing Ukraine of siphoning off gas following a cut-off of its domestic supplies on 1 January, which the latter has denied. Although Russia's cut-off was initially only due to affect Ukraine, Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin made the decision on 5 January to begin reducing gas supplied to Europe through Ukrainian transit lines by the amount Ukraine has allegedly siphoned off. Following the cut to transit flows, Russia accused Ukraine of shutting down three of the four transit pipelines running though its territory, which has dropped the amount of gas being delivered from 225 million cubic meters to only 40 million. Several countries have reported major supply disruptions in response to the latest cut. Turkey and Croatia are no longer receiving any supplies via Ukraine, while Romania has seen a 75 percent drop in deliveries and Austria, Bulgaria, Germany, Poland, Hungary, Greece, Slovakia and Macedonia are also being affected. Slovakia is planning to declare a state of emergency in response to the situation, and Bulgaria is reporting that its reserves are only expected to last a few days without the Russian deliveries. Countries in Central and Eastern Europe are expected to be the most affected by the dispute, because, compared to Western Europe, they are more dependent on Russia for their gas supplies