Thread: Russian oil supplies to Czech Republic cut after missile def

Russian oil supplies to Czech Republic cut after missile defence deal with US

By Harry de Quetteville in Berlin
Last Updated: 8:42AM BST 15/07/2008

Russian cut oil supplies to the Czech Republic have been cut by half, just days after the United States signed an agreement to build a missile shield radar station on Czech territory.

Moscow insisted that the cut was nothing to do with a US deal and that negotiations between suppliers were to blame for the hold up.

However, the Czech prime minister Mirek Topolanek appeared to remain sceptical over official explanations.

"I want to believe that reasons which the Russian supplier states are only technical," he said.

Russia's cut in oil supplies coincided exactly with US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice's visit to sign the radar base deal last Tuesday.

As the ink dried on that agreement, which will provide radar control for a US silo of interceptor missiles due to be based in Poland, oil flow through the Druzhba Â* Friendship - pipeline began to ebb.

Two days later, Prague was forced to protest after Russia threatened a "military response" to the deal Â* interpreted as retargeting and redeployment of its own missile arsenal.

The Czech defence ministry railed against Russia's "continued excessive rhetoric perceived in the Czech Republic as an interference with internal political affairs".

Business leaders in the Czech Republic, which sources 70 percent of its oil from Russian deliveries, were reported to be unsettled after the oil cuts, fearing a prolonged energy war with Russia.

But Mr Topolanek, said that the energy cuts posed "no threat for the citizens" because of his country's reserves, and its ability to source more oil from a western European pipeline.

America has long insisted that the missile shield, though based in Eastern Europe, is directed at 'rogue states' such as Iran, and is designed to intercept lone long range, potentially nuclear-tipped rockets fired at the US.

But Russia has consistently viewed the project as a strategic threat which upsets the balance of power on the continent.

Poland, which also receives oil through the Druzhba pipeline, but has not yet signed a deal to host the missile base with the US, has reported no drop in supplies.

It remains cautious about signing the deal, demanding that America upgrade its own armed forces with patriot missile batteries as part of the agreement.

Lithuania has been cited as a potential replacement for Poland, should Warsaw pull out of the missile deal. It would be immune to energy retaliation for any deal however, as Russia already cut off its oil supplies through the Druzhba pipeline in 2006.

Then Russia also cited "technical" reasons for the cuts, but analysts suggested privatisation of an oil refinery was the real cause, and Lithuania's president Valdas Adamkus described the move as unequivocally "political".

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldne ... th-US.html

Once again, the United States and her security and sovernighty are being manipulated and compromised by oil! For goodness sakes, we are forced to allow countries who hate us, dictate and influence our policies and desire for security because of our lack of oil!

We certainly cannot help out the Czech Republic! Maybe we should call Canada, Saudi Arabia, or mexico and see if we can persuade them to send a few barrels the Czech Republic's way...