Russia cuts off gas supply to Ukraineh
Edited by Kovis



Russian gas giant Gazprom began cutting off gas supply to Ukraine on Sunday after Kiev rejected the final offer from Russia on gas deliveries in 2006.

Gazprom begun reducing pressure in the pipelines to Ukraine at 09:40 (06:40 GMT) but gas exports to Europe via Ukraine are proceeding as normal, Gazprom spokesman Sergei Kupriyanov was quoted by the TASS news agency as saying.

The European Union buys 25 percent of its gas supplies from Gazprom, and most of the gas is pumped through Ukraine.

Ukraine's national oil and gas company Naftogaz Ukrainy confirmed later that pressure in the national gas pipeline was going down.

"The information I have indicates it's getting lower," Eduard Zanyuk, spokesperson for Naftogaz Ukrainy, was quoted by TASS as saying.

Ukraine has been buying Russian gas for 50 US dollars per 1,000 cubic meters for the past year, but Gazprom has asked Ukraine to pay more than quadruple this price and offered cash payments for the transit of its gas to European clients.

Late Saturday, President Vladimir Putin approved a three-month freeze on the gas price for Ukraine, ordering Gazprom to supply gas at the current price for the first quarter of 2006 if Ukraine accepts a price hike starting the second quarter. Putin said the offer would only be valid until the end of the day.

Gazprom said shortly after the deadline expired that Naftogaz Ukrainy had refused to sign a contract that contained Putin's offer.

"We believe it will be extremely difficult, or impossible, to be more precise, for the Ukrainian authorities to explain to their people the reason for such a short-sighted policy," Kupriyanov said.

Though Russia says it is purely a business dispute, the gas cut-off has fed concern from Washington to Berlin that the Kremlin is prepared to use its control over its massive energy resources as a political weapon.

Ukraine's western-leaning President Viktor Yushchenko has irked many in Moscow by trying to take his ex-Soviet state on Russia's western border into NATO and the European Union.

And that, say Ukrainian officials, is why the Kremlin is punishing Kiev with such a huge price increase while letting more Moscow-friendly ex-Soviet states such as Belarus go on paying far less for Russian gas.

A TV grab from Russian NTV channel taken January 1, 2006 shows employees of a gasmeasuring unit in the Slovakian town of Velki Kapushani monitoring the gas pressure in the pipeline coming from Ukraine to Europe.

 

 

World in Pictures
Photo source: ImagineChina

Welcome 2006 世界各地喜迎新年
	Base jumping record 澳大利亚: 极限挑战者连续24小时跳伞 Australian base jumper Gary Cunningham leaps from Malaysia's Kuala Lumpur Tower during his 24-hour record breaking attempt for most continuous base jumps in Kuala Lumpur, January 1. Cunningham marked the beginning of 2006 not by popping a bottle of champagne, but by completing his record-setting 133 jumps off Malaysia's tallest telecommunications tower.
	New Year's Eve road race 巴西: 万人长跑 Thousands of participants take part in the 81st Sao Silvestre New Year's Eve road race, in Sao Paulo, Brazil, December 31, 2005. 15 thousand people took part in Brazil's most traditional street race.
	Fireworks display 德国: 燃放创意烟花 Maria Hoffmann uses a sparkler to write 2006 on the eve of New Year celebrations in Frankfurt, Germany, December 31, 2005. The annual fireworks display celebrate the New Year.
	New Year countdown in New York 美国: 时代广场百万人狂欢 Revelers don hats and glasses as they prepare to celebrate the New Year, December 31, 2005, in New York's Times Square. A million people filled the area around Times Square to welcome 2006.

 

 

World in Words
Collected & translated by Beverly

"Ask yourself whether you are happy, and you cease to be so."
"当你问自己快不快乐时, 你已经不快乐了."
Darrin M. McMahon, an American journalist, suggests that people say "Don't have a happy new year!" to each other instead of the more traditional greeting.
--美国记者麦克马洪先生撰文建议人们在互道新年祝福时说"新年不要快乐! "而不是传统的问候.

"It appears people who boogie better tend to be more symmetrical - which is something people look for in a mate."
"能随音乐翩翩起舞的人似乎身体的平衡性也较好, 而这正是人们寻找另一半的标准之一."
Someone who can cut a dash on the dance-floor has always been seen as a good catch, but scientists have now explained why.
--能在舞池里大出风头的人一直以来都备受异性青睐, 近日科学家们对这一现象做出了解释.

"It's fine to think about training children to be independent, but there has been this misguided effort to extend it to an area where it's really not developmentally appropriate."
"想把孩子培养得独立些, 这是好的. 但如果把这种想法延伸到不合适的领域, 那就错了."
A growing group of American parents are sharing a bed with their baby, a common practice in the rest of the world, which had become nearly taboo in this country.
--越来越多的美国家长也开始和自己的小宝贝同床共眠了. 尽管这种做法在其他国家很普遍, 但以前在美国是比较忌讳的.

"Edward really is a natural. He has an eye for art. It's something that you can't teach at such an early age, but Edward just knows what to do instinctively."
"爱德华真是个天才. 他有一双为艺术而生的眼睛. 像他这么小的年纪, 有些东西是没法教授的, 但他却能凭着直觉去画."
Leslie Simpson, grandpa of Edward Simpson. The 6-year-old boy is the youngest artist to have work displayed at a British Watercolour Society exhibition and the only one to sell every painting on show.
--爱德华的爷爷莱斯利·辛普森这样说道. 6岁的爱德华不仅是英国水彩画学会画展上最小的参展者, 还是惟一一个卖掉自己全部作品的人.


Vocabulary
reject 否决
freeze 冻结
hike 加价
irk 使苦恼
quadruple 四倍的