'Rusland gebruikt gas niet als politiek wapen' (en)

EUOBSERVER / BRUSSELS - The notion of Russia using energy as a political weapon is a western media myth, Moscow's ambassador to Brussels told EUobserver on Thursday (4 May), while warning against attempts to politicise the country's World Trade Organisation (WTO) bid.

"It's been inbred in the minds and repeated a thousand times to public opinion in Europe that Russia wanted to punish a democratic Ukraine, turned off the gas and so Europe suffered," Vladimir Chizhov said. "But everybody forgets that it happened because Ukraine was stealing EU gas."

"I have been reading the FT every day, and no single day has passed without an article criticising Russia, particularly in the energy field," he added. "There have been lots of misrepresentations and actually, distortion of the facts."

His remarks came the same day as a withering attack from US vice president Dick Cheney at a meeting of eastern European leaders in Vilnius, saying "no legitimate interest is served when oil and gas become tools of intimidation or blackmail" in reference to Moscow.

At WTO level, the EU is also reviewing its May 2004 bilateral decision to agree to Russian membership due to worries over lack of fair play and market access in the energy field.

"Maybe we should have paid more attention to this situation going back. I'm not sure we got this relationship right," a commission official indicated. "There is a feeling the energy chapter was closed too quickly."

Multilateral WTO negotiations have also seen "many, many countries" including Canada, China and Japan raise "technical questions" on Russian energy pricing, a WTO spokeswoman said.

Belarus prices to go up

The Russian envoy explained that Gazprom's recent plans to increase gas prices to Belarus are in line with market trends and WTO membership criteria, not attempts to blackmail Minsk into a political union with Russia.

"Whatever Russia does, such as keeping prices low, is bad, because it gives support to [Belarus leader] Alexander Lukashenko. Raising prices is bad because it's using energy as a political tool, so whatever we do is regarded as bad," he said.

Mr Chizhov indicated that Russian president Vladimir Putin's recent remarks on potential energy sales to Asia were also misreported. "I have read the transcript. It could not be regarded as a threat by any objective reader."

Lack of good information on Moscow has given rise to a tradition of speculative "Kremlinology" among western press, one Brussels-based analyst said, using an old Russian proverb to highlight problems:

"When a diplomat says yes, he means maybe. When a diplomat says maybe, he means no. When a diplomat says no, he is not a diplomat."

Mr Chizhov said that Russia has "more work to do" in terms of improving its image in the west, with Moscow recently hiring US firm Ketchum to handle PR around the G8 summit in St Petersburg in July.

But he warned against any attempts to create political pressure on energy issues via negative media coverage. "The more pressure there is on Russia, the less chance there is to get a concession," the envoy stated.

Wine as political weapon

Moldova and Georgia have also accused Russia of imposing bans on wine exports as political punishment for pro-EU policies, questioning Moscow's commitment to WTO rules on equal treatment of trade partners.

In Moldova's case, high-level EU diplomats see Russia's April 2006 wine import ban as a direct attempt to break Chisinau's resolve on stopping black market exports from the breakaway pro-Russian region of Transniestria.

"There are efforts to politicise the WTO process coming from a certain number of small countries," Mr Chizhov indicated. "But there is no room for politics in this organisation."

"There is nothing political in the decision on wine," he added, repeating accusations of poor quality and labelling fraud against Moldova and Georgia.

Moscow has so far failed to put forward evidence of its allegations in line with article five of the WTO rules on phytosanitary complaints however.

Moldova and Georgia theoretically have vetoes on Russia's membership of the WTO, but in practice major powers such as the EU and the US make the decisions on who gets in.

"There are very few small members that can influence their big neighbours," a European Commission contact indicated. "It's one of the unfortunate realities of life."