Russian Dispute with Belarus over Oil Echoes 2006 Natural Gas Fight with Ukraine

In 2006, it was Russia, Ukraine and natural gas.

In 2007, it's Russia again, but now with Belarus and oil:

Belarus has blocked the transit of Russian oil through its territory to European countries including Germany and Poland, news reports said Monday, raising the stakes in a bitter energy dispute between Russia and the neighboring former Soviet nation.

EU energy chief Andris Piebalgs said Monday the cuts pose "no immediate risk" to energy supplies in the EU, but that he was seeking an "urgent and detailed explanation" of the cuts from authorities in Belarus and Russia.

I think these comments are instructive:

In Warsaw, the Economics Ministry said Monday that Poland was suffering disruptions in oil deliveries from the pipeline that crosses Belarus, the result of the dispute between Moscow and Minsk.

"This shows us once again that arguments among various countries of the former Soviet Union, between suppliers and transit countries, mean that these deliveries are unreliable from our perspective," Poland's deputy economy minister, Piotr Naimski, told TVN24 television.

More, here.

Technorati tags: Energy, Electricity, Oil, Natural Gas, Russia, Ukraine, Belarus, European Union