Oil pipeline in George sabotaged; Russia blamed.

[Kharpert]

Russia blamed for 'gas sabotage'

A Russian soldier guards part of the Mozdok-Tbilisi pipeline, twisted by a blast
Saakashvili interview
Georgia's president has accused Moscow of serious acts of "sabotage" after gas blasts on Russian pipelines cut off supplies to Georgia and Armenia.

Mikhail Saakashvili told the BBC the near simultaneous attacks close to Georgia's border were pre-planned actions orchestrated by Russia.

An electricity transmission line was also destroyed as Georgia experiences extremely cold weather.

Russia's foreign ministry dismissed Mr Saakashvili's remarks as "hysteria".

Russian prosecutors earlier described the attacks as deliberate criminal acts and said an investigation was under way.

Georgia has no gas reserves and was due to run out of gas on Sunday evening, correspondents say.

Relations between Georgia and Russia have been tense since Mr Saakashvili was swept to power by the so-called "Rose Revolution" in 2003, pledging to lead his nation on a pro-Western course.

'Planned attacks'

The two explosions occurred on the main branch and a reserve branch of the Mozdok-Tbilisi pipeline in the Russian border region of North Ossetia at around 0300 local time (2400 GMT).


We've received numerous threats by Russian politicians and officials at different levels to punish us for basically for not giving them pipelines
Mikhail Saakashvili
Georgian President

The electricity transmission line in Russia's southern region of Karachayevo-Cherkessiya - also near the Georgian border - was brought down by an explosion just hours later.

Speaking to the BBC, Mr Saakashvili said there was now huge pressure on his country's energy system, as it was experiencing its coldest weather in more than 20 years.

He said all gas supplies to Georgia were now cut off as was 25% of the electricity supply.


We believe this situation should not be politicised
Gazprom spokesman Sergei Kuprianov

Mr Saakashvili said the gas pipeline was blown up in "an area fully under Russian control... with a heavy presence of Russian border guards", where there were no local insurgents.

"They happened at the same time, and basically they didn't affect supplies to Russia proper, so we can conclude that it was a very well-organised and very well-co-ordinated act.

"As a provider of energy Russia remains unreliable, unpredictable," Mr Saakashvili said in an apparent reference to a recent gas row between Russian and Ukraine that led to gas shortages in several EU countries.

"We've received numerous threats by Russian politicians and officials at different levels to punish us for basically for not giving them pipelines," the Georgian president said.

Mr Saakashvili did not offer any evidence to back his claims.

The Russian foreign ministry described his comments as the product of "hysteria and bacchanalia".

Russia's prosecutor's office earlier said what happened were acts of sabotage and that explosive devices had been found, the BBC's Damian Grammaticas in Moscow reports.

A spokesman for Russia's gas monopoly Gazprom said the company was doing all it could to restore gas supplies.

"We believe this situation should not be politicised," Sergei Kuprianov was quoted as saying by the Russian Interfax news agency.

Reports say it could take several days to restore gas supplies, due to the site's remoteness and poor weather conditions.

Price hikes

Georgia is holding emergency talks aimed at securing supplies from Azerbaijan and Iran, but this could also take several days, said Georgian Deputy Energy Minister Aleko Khetagurov.

Russia also supplies gas through Georgia to Armenia, which in turn sends some electricity back to Georgia.

Gas prices to the two countries were doubled in January to $110 per 1,000 cubic metres, as part of a series of recent price hikes for former Soviet countries.

Armenian President Robert Kocharyan is expected to discuss the gas situation in a meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin, during a visit to Moscow which starts on Sunday.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/4637034.stm

[Gavur]

Armenia Braces For Gas Rationing As Pipeline Repairs Drag On

By Nane Atshemian

Armenia braced itself for a potentially serious energy crisis on Tuesday amid reports that repair work on the main Russian pipeline providing it and neighboring Georgia with natural gas will take longer than was expected.

The ArmRosGazprom (ARG) national gas operator warned that it will have to cut supplies to business customers if it becomes clear that the pipeline, wrecked by two explosions in southern Russia on Sunday, will not be restored by Friday.

“They say that the pipeline repair will be complete on January 27,” ARG spokeswoman Shushan Sardarian told RFE/RL. “If they finish the job on time, we will not resort to any [supply] limitations. We will do that only if things drag on.”

Russia’s Gazprom monopoly, which owns 45 percent of ARG, initially pledged to complete repairs on the damaged section of the pipeline early this week. However, they were reportedly suspended on Tuesday, ostensibly due to a cold weather and a leak of gas condensate.

"An explosion may occur if welding is conducted now. For this reason all workers repairing the pipeline have been taken to safety," Vladimir Ivanov, an official from Russia's Emergency Situations Ministry, was quoted by Interfax news agency as saying. “Gas condensate is still leaking.”

The head of a Russian company repairing the damage from the blasts in the Caucasus republic of North Ossetia told Interfax that these problems “will delay the repairs by 100 hours or maybe more.”

According to Sardarian, if this information is officially confirmed by the Russian side ARG will likely cut supplies to vehicle filling stations and industrial enterprises “starting from tomorrow.” She said there are no plans yet to introduce gas rationing for individual consumers. “We are doing everything to ensure that the population remains unaffected by this problem,” she said.

ARG has tapped its emergency reserves to keep up supplies to some 400,000 households and thermal power plants that generate than one third of Armenia’s electricity. Its main underground storage facility north of Yerevan contained 80 million cubic meters of gas when the Russian pipeline was knocked out in the early hours of Sunday. Officials would not says just when the country will run out of its reserves if Russian supplies are not restored soon.

The Russian-Armenian joint venture has already reduced supplies to the Hrazdan power plant that exports its electricity surplus to Georgia. Those exports were halted immediately after the Russian blasts. The gas operator has also urged Armenians to use gas for heating their homes more sparingly. But ARG has so far reported only a slight decrease in gas consumption.

This has apparently to do with a continuing cold snap that hit Armenia last week. Its has been aggravated by unusually heavy snowfalls that have going on since Friday.

The situation was even more difficult in Georgia where authorities restricted gas and power supplies to the population. It improved considerably on Monday as gas began flowing into Georgia via an alternative pipeline passing through Azerbaijan.

Georgian leaders alleges that the supply cutoff was a deliberate act of sabotage by Russia aimed at punishing Tbilisi for its pro-Western policies. Russia has vehemently denied the charges. The Armenian government, which maintains closer ties with Moscow, has so far been silent on the issue.

Meanwhile, it emerged that the U.S. government intervened to help prevent an energy crisis in the two South Caucasus states. "We did talk to the parties that were involved in the issue over the weekend," State Department spokesman Sean McCormack told
reporters in Washington on Monday, adding there were "a lot of phone calls."

The AFP news agency quoted him as saying the American officials involved included Dan Fried, assistant secretary of state for European and Eurasian affairs, his deputy Matthew Bryza, and U.S. diplomats in Georgia. "Regardless right now what the cause of the explosions were, what is important is that Georgia and Armenia's neighbors came together to come to their neighbors' aid in a time of crisis," McCormack said. "And we played a role in that, proudly so."

G-I guess a child could can see who is wearing the white hat and the black one .If only we were A child .

(GI-Photolur photo: Workers fix on Monday the Mozdok-Tbilisi pipeline near the village of Nizhni Lars in North Ossetia a day after it was destroyed by two blasts.)

[Gavur]

Armenia ‘Very Concerned’ About Iran Nuclear Row

By Emil Danielyan

Armenia voiced on Wednesday serious concern about mounting international pressure on neighboring Iran, with Foreign Minister Vartan Oskanian calling for a diplomatic solution to the dispute over Tehran’s nuclear program.

“We are following the developments with regard to Iran very closely and we are very concerned about that because we are a neighboring country,” he told reporters.

“We can only hope under these circumstances that things will not get worse, that Iran and the international community will be able to find a resolution to this uranium enrichment issue and things will be resolved in a peaceful manner and the issue wll not go to the Security Council and no sanctions will be employed by the international community,” added Oskanian.

The United States and the European Union suspect Iran of seeking to develop nuclear weapons and want to take the matter to the UN Security Council unless the Islamic Republic resumes full cooperation with the International Atomic Energy Agency. The UN nuclear watchdog’s governing board is scheduled to meet in Vienna on February 2 to decide whether to refer Iran to the Security Council and thereby raise the prospect of international sanctions against its hardline government. Armenia is not among 35 countries making up the IAEA board.

Analysts believe that an escalation of tensions between Iran and the West would jeopardize Yerevan’s ongoing large-scale energy projects with Tehran which it considers vital for Armenia’s energy security. Oskanian clearly acknowledged this.

“We have very good relations with Iran,” he said. “We’ve begun construction of a gas pipeline from Iran to Armenia which is extremely critical for our energy security. And we have many other regional projects that we implement with Iran.”

http://www.armenialiberty.org/armeniareport/report/en/2006/01/3475FC94-0E82-4669-9873-1EAC74DA1167.asp

[Gavur]

Ahmedinajad Receives 'Bombed Greeting'

By Foreign News Desk
Published: Wednesday, January 25, 2006
zaman.com


Ahvaz, the capital of the Iranian province Khuzestan where the Arabs live in majority, was shaken by bombings on the day president Mahmoud Ahmedinajad was supposed to visit the town.

At least eight people died yesterday and 46 were injured in the two different explosions that took place at a bank and a government building in the oil-rich town. The explosions are claimed to have been aimed at Ahmedinajad, who planned to address residents but whose program was cancelled due to “heavy snow”. Bombings had previously taken place in Ahvaz, leading Tehran to make the assessment “The explosions speak English.” Tehran maintains the US and UK are trying to provoke Arabs in Iran. It was also stated the explosions may be a secret warning to Iran, who is refusing to relent in its nuclear activities. Hezbullah’s Al-Manar TV broadcasting from Lebanon claimed Ahmedinajad gave up going to Ahvaz for security reasons, and the attacks were aimed at his visit. The majority of Arabs, three percent of Iran’s 67-million population, live in this state. In explosions that occurred in October and June in Ahvaz, in the vicinity of the southern border of Iraq where British troops serve, 14 people died and more than 100 were injured.