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Gazprom says will double Georgia's gas bill
by : Mike Burns
Date : Thu, 02 Nov 2006 17:38:00 GMT
MOSCOW - Russia 's state-controlled natural gas entity, Gazprom said Thursday that it would double the charge for the gas supplied to Georgia. This announcement further escalated the tensions between the two countries with Georgia saying that it was the price for moving away from Russia and looking West. lt;br / gt;
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Gazprom officials said Thursday that it was planning to hike the price charged to $230 per 1,000 cubic meters of gas, up from $110 being charged currently. lt;br / gt;
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Georgian Foreign Minister Gela Bezhuashvili said the price hike reflected more politics than economics. He was talking to Moscow radio station Ekho Moskvy. "They present it as a commercial deal, but there is a big portion of politics … the price we pay for our choice in setting pro-Western policies, " Bezhuashvili said. lt;br / gt;
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Bezhuashvili is in Moscow for talks with his counterpart Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov. This is the first high-level meeting between the two countries after Georgia arrested four Russian military officers on allegations of spying in September. lt;br / gt;
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Although the officers were released some days later, Russia cut off transportation and postal links with Georgia. lt;br / gt;
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Bezhuashvili said the former Soviet country was hoping to minimize its reliance on Russian gas by negotiating with other countries. Georgia is talking to Azerbaijan, Turkey and Iran to supply the bulk of its "1.5 to 1.8 billion cubic metre annual demands, " he added. lt;br / gt;
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However Gazprom has defended the price hikes by saying that it is long overdue. But Western countries see the move as a "punishment " to the governments in former Soviet countries for their pro-Western policies.
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