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The 2010 General Election
Stop playing Scrooge Darling, we need tax cuts now
Government risks civil unrest over pensions
New Party sympathises with expenses backlash MPs
Miliband's carbon solution is to export employment during recession
New Party disappointed by CO2 advert adjudication delays
This year Christmas dinner will cost you £36million, if you are quick
IPPR plans would cause higher numbers to jump from UK Titanic
Stealth tax ‘shooting galleries’ creating killer roads
New Party slams 'perverse' lessons in domestic violence
UK needs to wake up and end this economic 'Greek tragedy'
New corruption figures highlight Kelly's Westminster failure
Queen's Speech a matter of the 'government's new clothes'
Labour's nuclear 'dithering' will have UK scrabbling in the dark, New Party leader tells nuclear heartland
YouTube debut for New Party following Politics Show appearance
Stop Westminster Council's bike rider robbery before it spreads nationwide
New Party calls for BBC to end its 'discrimination' of smaller political parties
New Party praises ASA for investigating 'sickening' carbon advert
Time to unburden 10 million low earners of income tax
'Orwellian' C02 advert prompts New Party call for withdrawal
Richard Vass' letter to the national press
Red Tape has left thousands across Britain jobless
Who are the real progressives?
Memories of '76
The reactionary left
The Democratic Imperative
Socialism for shoppers
Spivocracy in action
Precisely
The abdication of leadership
Rebuilding communities
The loser tendency
The United Nations: what moral authority?
How to banish cynicism
The Chancellor's iron grip - on power
British politics: Is it dead yet?

Tuesday, January 13, 2009

Russian blackmail must not succeed

A dispute over gas contracts may seem like a normal commercial problem but in the case of Russia's Gazprom it takes on a political dimension.  The state-owned energy company has yet again been withholding supplies, causing shortages through much of Eastern Europe.

Supplies to the EU are meant to be resuming now but Russia is continuing to block any gas supplies to Ukraine.  A dispute about gas prices looks distinctly like a political move to put pressure on Ukraine and by extension all of Russia's former Soviet bloc satellites.  Russia's attempts to bully its neighbours - most notably in the case of its military action in Georgia - are about re-establishing its sphere of influence.  This is Cold War politics once more.

The West should not abandon Russia's neighbours and should continue to encourage pro-Western governments that support the rule of law and a liberal market economy.  Blackmail by Moscow cannot be allowed to succeed.