USA Today is reporting that bomb residue was found near the destroyed pipelines in southern Russia. If true, it's not infrastructure at all but sabotage. Chechens are suspected.
This presents another delivery risk for Russian gas. Of course, the argument will be made by some that the Russian blew them up themselves. Why would they do this? To provide contnued justification for the fighting in Chechnya. You kill two birds by taking out Georgian gas. This is the kind of argument that was made in the Moscow apartment building explosions of a couple of years back. It is still pushed by Beresovsky, I think. But allegations aren't proof of anything.
LEvko comments: Ukraine was supposed to sign finalized gas contracts, including the setting up of a JV, with Russia on Saturday 21st January, but this has been postponed until the 25th. According to 'Ukr Pravda' Yekhanurov claimed that the Ukrainian side, 'hadn't prepared the documents in time.'Maybe the blowing of the pipes was just a reminder: 'Don't mess us about..'Or maybe we are both just thinking like Russians and looking for angles..
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