The madness of NATO's proxy war in Ukraine creates an emergency situation in Moldova.
Moldova enters 60-day state of emergency over expected end of Russian natural gas flow
Dec. 13 (UPI) -- Reacting to an expected cut-off in Russian gas supply, Moldova's Parliament Friday voted to enter a 60-day state of emergency.
Fifty-six out of 101 members of parliament voted to implement the state of emergency, allowing the government to take emergency steps attempting to prevent or mitigate the threat as a natural gas deal to transmit gas to Moldova from Russia via Ukraine expires Dec. 31.
Most of Moldova uses European gas.
The Russian gas currently flowing through Ukraine is not used by most of Moldova, only the Russian-occupied Transnistria region -- a strip of territory near Ukraine's border.
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However, a power plant in Transnistria supplies electricity to all of Moldova, so a gas shutoff poses a threat to the entire country.
Russia's Gazprom and Ukraine's Naftogaz have a gas transit deal for Russian gas to flow through Ukraine and on to Moldova that ends Dec. 31.
Ukraine has said it won't extend the deal.
Moldovan Prime Minister Dorin Recean said the gas could continue flowing to Moldova from Russia through Turkey and Romania, but so far Russia's state-run Gazprom has ruled that out, citing an alleged unpaid debt Moldova owes Russia for past gas purchases.
Moldova is a land-locked country neighboring Ukraine in the European Balkans.
Moldova's parliament said in a press release a humanitarian crisis could be triggered if the gas flow is shut off.
Before 2022 Moldova bought all its gas from Russia.
Moldova has said Russia is using hybrid tactics like espionage, a coup plot and election interference to destabilize Moldova's government, so the nation switched most of the country to European gas.
According to Dutch bank ING Head of Commodities Strategy Warren Patterson, when the deal to flow Russian gas through Ukraine ends, "the EU will lose around 15bcm of gas supply annually, which is equivalent to around 5% of total imports."
He added that unless some arrangement is made to continue the Russian gas flow, "the EU will have to rely further on LNG imports to make up for this shortfall."
LNG imports from America? At much higher cost than that from Russia.
Romania, Bulgaria to get full Schengen Area
travel rights in 2025
Dec. 12 (UPI) -- Romania and Bulgaria will become full members of the Schengen Area that allows free movement of 420 million people between 29 mostly European Union countries without border checks at the start of 2025, the EU said Thursday.
The move, set to take effect Jan. 1, came after EU ministers agreed to lift the final remaining land border crossing restrictions with and between Bulgaria and Romania nine months after they officially joined in the Schengen Area in March, the European Council announced in a press release.
Romania and Bulgaria applied parts of the Schengen legal framework, including those relating to external border controls, police cooperation and the use of the Schengen Information System since joining the 27 member-country bloc in 2007.
Checks on travelers at internal air and sea borders ended in March, however, land borders that were kept in place due to concerns from Austria and other neighbors that the two countries were not doing enough to stop illegal migrants from outside the EU, using them as gateways to the rest of the EU, had remained in place until Thursday's decision.
The breakthrough was hailed by European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen who simply said in a post on X superimposed onto the Romanian and Bulgarian national flags: "Fully in Schengen -- where you belong."
Hungary, which holds the presidency of the EU called it a landmark step.
"It is a historic moment to finally welcome Bulgaria and Romania as full Schengen members. Lifting checks on persons at the internal land borders with and between those member states has been a top priority for the Hungarian presidency, and today we have made it a reality," said Hungarian interior minister Sandor Pinter.
"This step will benefit not only Bulgarian and Romanian citizens, but also the EU as a whole."
Romanian Prime Minister Marcel Ciolacu said full membership would provide a major economic boost and "faster journeys home for millions of Romanians" of living and working in the Schengen Area.
Thanking EU institutions and member states for their support and trust, President Klaus Iohannis said in post on X that full accession would also "strengthen EU security and unity."
"Today's decision is a recognition of our years-long efforts and progress achieved. RO assures that we will continue to act fully responsible for protecting and strengthening EU's external borders," Iohanniss said.
The lifting of restrictions should theoretically cut down road travel time wasted at border crossings by hours, particularly for commercial trucks, with the Romanian Road Haulers' Association telling the BBC that delays that can run to five days cost the industry an estimated $20 billion between 2012 and 2023.
Trucks crossing into Hungary on main Romania-Hungary border crossing at Nadlac face another six months of physical and documentation checks while Bulgaria has erected an electronic barrier at the main crossing on the route to Bucharest, charging trucks $26 to pass.
The Romanian trucking association said the main issue was bottlenecks caused by all checks and inspections -- weighing, permits, health and environmental and searches for illegal migrants -- being carried out at the Romanian border instead of at dedicated staging areas well away from crossing points as they were in the rest of the Schengen zone.
Georgian lawmakers elected Mikheil Kavelashvili, a hardline critic of the West, as the country’s new president on Saturday, setting him up to replace a pro-Western incumbent amid major protests against the government over a halt to the country’s European Union accession talks last month.
The ruling Georgian Dream party’s move to freeze the EU accession process until 2028, abruptly halting a long-standing national goal that is written into the country’s constitution, has provoked widespread anger in Georgia, where opinion polls show that seeking EU membership is overwhelmingly popular.
Undoubtedly, it also provoked anger in Brussels, NATO, Washington, and wherever George Soros lives.
Kavelashvili, a former professional soccer player, has strongly anti-Western, often conspiratorial views. In public speeches this year, he has repeatedly alleged that Western intelligence agencies are seeking to drive Georgia into war with Russia.
I do not doubt that for even a second.
Georgian presidents are picked by a college of electors composed of MPs and representatives of local government. Of 225 electors present, 224 voted for Kavelashvili, who was the only candidate nominated.
All opposition parties have boycotted parliament since an October election in which official results gave the ruling Georgian Dream party almost 54% of the vote, but which the opposition say was fraudulent.
Hundreds of protesters gathered in light snowfall outside parliament ahead of the presidential vote. Some played soccer in the street outside and waved red cards at the parliament building, a mocking reference to Kavelashvili’s athletic career.
Kavelashvili was nominated for the mostly ceremonial presidency last month by Bidzina Ivanishvili, a billionaire ex-prime minister who is widely seen as the country’s paramount leader.
Kavelashvili is a leader of People’s Power, an anti-Western splinter group of the ruling party, and was a co-author of a law on “foreign agents” that requires organisations receiving more than 20% of their funding from overseas to register as agents of foreign influence, and imposes heavy fines for violations.
Outgoing President Salome Zourabichvili, a pro-EU critic of the ruling Georgian Dream party, has positioned herself as a leader of the protest movement and has said she will remain president after her term ends. She considers parliament illegitimate as a result of alleged fraud in the October election.
Opposition parties have said they will continue to regard Zourabichvili as the legitimate president, even after Kavelashvili is inaugurated on Dec. 29.
Things are going to get rough in Georgia.
Souring relations with West
Georgia has been seen for decades as one of the most pro-Western and democratic of the Soviet Union’s successor states, but relations with the West have soured this year, with Georgian Dream forcing through laws on foreign agents and LGBT rights that critics say are Russian-inspired and draconian.
But, perhaps, Godly.
Western countries have raised the alarm at Georgia’s apparent foreign policy pivot and authoritarian drift, with the EU threatening sanctions over a crackdown on protests. In a video address to Georgians published on Friday, French President Emmanuel Macron said: “Georgia’s European dream must not be extinguished”.
Since the outbreak of the war in Ukraine, Georgian Dream has moved to improve ties with Russia, which ruled Georgia for 200 years until 1991, continues to back two breakaway Georgian regions, and defeated Georgia in a five-day war in 2008.
Tens of thousands of protesters have rallied outside parliament nightly for more than two weeks. Some have hurled fireworks at police, who have used water cannon, tear gas and ballot attacks to break up demonstrations.
I don't know what a ballot attack is, but it doesn't sound too painful. Is the term 'tens of thousands' an exaggeration? At the top, they mention only 'hundreds of protestors' in the streets.
The government has repeatedly said the protests represent an attempt to stage a pro-EU revolution and a violent seizure of power.
Deep State and left-leaning politicians are all great supporters of democracy, as long as their side wins.
Police have detained hundreds of protesters. Georgia's interior ministry has said that more than 150 officers have been injured during the protests.
On Friday, parliament approved sweeping new restrictions on protests, hiking fines for participants and organisers, and banning from gatherings face coverings, fireworks and lasers used to dazzle police officers.
(Reuters)
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