Georgian Leader Attacks Russia After Gas Blasts

Georgia’s president, Mikhail Saakashvili, accused Russia of sabotage and "outrageous blackmail" yesterday after explosions cut off gas supplies from his country’s energy-rich neighbor.

Two simultaneous explosions at 3am yesterday cut through both tubes of a gas pipeline just on the Russian side of the border with Georgia. Another blast struck an important electricity pylon nearby nine hours later. The three blasts left Georgia with limited supplies of Russian gas for heating. It also meant Georgia could only supply about 40% of the electricity demanded by its 3 million inhabitants in temperatures of -5C (23F).

Sergei Prokopov, a spokesman for Russian prosecutors, said the blasts might be the work of "extremists bent on worsening Russian and Georgian relations". He could not rule out the involvement of Chechen-linked militants who are active in Russia’s North Causasus.

But Mr Saakashvili called the blasts "a serious act of sabotage on the part of Russia on Georgia’s energy system". He told Reuters: "Basically what happened is totally outrageous and we are dealing with an outrageous blackmail by people who do not want to behave in a civilised way."

Relations between Georgia and Russia have deteriorated considerably since Mr Saakashvili came to power after a pro-western "rose revolution", yet yesterday’s recriminations marked a new low.

The Kremlin has sought to tighten its control over the energy industry, and analysts suggest Russia intends to retain its influence over former Soviet states and beyond by manipulating the price and supply of oil and gas. It has doubled the cost of gas for Georgia but has frozen the price for its more loyal neighbor, Belarus.

The explosions also disrupted gas supplies to Armenia.

Last night, Georgian officials were waiting for the Russian state energy giant Gazprom to increase the pressure of gas delivered to neighboring Azerbaijan, so that it could send it on to Georgia. The move would provide a stopgap during the four days needed to fix the Russian pipeline.

Aleko Khetaguri, an aide to the Georgian minister for energy, said electricity supplies, currently meeting 60% of demand, would fall to 40% when people began to use electricity to heat their gas-less homes. Mr Khetaguri warned that the cold could cause fatalities and said Azerbaijani gas could not be used to boost power supplies until this morning, leaving Georgians to face a night of -15C without gas.

The incident is the third energy crisis in as many weeks to hit Russia’s G8 chairmanship. On January 1, Moscow took up the role against the backdrop of a gas price dispute that led Gazprom to cut supplies to Ukraine for 24 hours. Last week, a cold snap in Russia forced the company to cut supplies to Italy and Hungary, and electricity to Finland.