Russia’s Gazprom Struggles to Keep Europe Warm

The deadly cold snap continues to grip central and eastern Europe.

The deep freeze has caused 80 deaths, mostly in Ukraine and Poland.

It also has Russian gas giant Gazprom struggling to meet demand.

Anchor Marco Werman talks to reporter Julia Barton about the energy challenges Gazprom is facing.

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Marco Werman: I’m Marco Werman and this is The World, a coproduction of the BBC World Service, PRI and WGBH Boston. There’s cold and then there’s deadly cold. The deadly cold we want to tell you about right now, it continues to grip central and eastern Europe. The deep freeze has caused at least 80 deaths, mostly in Ukraine and Poland. It also has Russian gas giant, Gazprom, struggling to meet demand. Reporter Julia Barton is in Moscow. Julia, you’re just back from Ukraine where at least 40 cold related deaths have occurred, what was it like there and how are people dealing with this cold?

Julia Barton: Well, as you can imagine the air in Kiev was very frigid, I mean you walk outside and immediately the hairs inside your nose start to freeze over and the water in your eyes starts to turn to ice. So, that tells me at least that it’s well below zero Fahrenheit, but I didn’t see any sign that people were avoiding going outside. You would see women in these huge fur coats, wrapped up in those, and people with their fur chapkas, their hats. The sidewalks are very icy and dangerous. Again, that doesn’t seem to deter anyone. The did close schools in Kiev today, but children are out sledding with their parents and just enjoying a sunny day off.

Werman: And for those 40, at least 40 cold related deaths, how did those people die specifically?

Barton: Well, most of them were homeless and well, this partly might be an issue in terms of Ukraine, of the country starting to do better than some of its former Soviet neighbors in reporting deaths like this, but Ukraine also does not have a good social safety net when it comes to issues like homelessness. And all that becomes absolutely clear when you have a cold snap like this. The country’s prime minister, Mykola Azarov, had to ask people openly and say “We need to help each other. We need to stop being indifferent when we see someone who has nowhere else to go.” And he had to ask hospitals not to turn their indigent patients out onto the street when their treatment is through. The emergency ministry there has setup over 1,700 heated shelters around the country with food and tea, but obviously that’s just a short term answer to a much bigger problem. There’s no kind of well-knit social safety net that can help people with deeper issues, such as alcoholism and drug use, and so they just end up on the streets living in the storm sewer systems and that kind of thing, and there’s nowhere for them to go when the cold like this hits.

Werman: Now, Ukraine and many other of the affected countries rely on Russian gas for heat that comes from Gazprom, the gas monopoly in Russia. Has Gazprom been able to meet the demand?

Barton: Some European countries beyond Ukraine, such as Italy, complained earlier this week that their gas supplies dropped, and they blamed Gazprom for diverting that gas for domestic use. Gazprom says it did not do that. It admits that it has been strained a bit by just a slight amount and so they’ve increased their supplies from underground storage facilities and that gas is in the pipeline. It should be reaching Europe, but they say it just takes time.

Werman: What about Russia’s former satellite nations? I mean how dependent are they on Gazprom?

Barton: They are fairly dependent, although Ukraine has its own supply of gas and the government has said they also released their own domestic storage supplies to heat the country. So they’re saying they shouldn’t suffer any shortages from this cold snap.

Werman: Now, Julia, on Saturday there are antigovernment demonstrations planned in Moscow, and the cold, apparently, is going to continue through the weekend. Could the weather have an impact on the turnout?

Barton: The protest organizers you know, they are still going forward with their plans, but they are starting to talk about the possible impact, and their spin is starting to sound like well, if as many people or a respectable number of people still show up despite this Siberian level of cold, then that sends an even stronger signal to the government that people are fed up. And the cold didn’t stop a small group of protestors from climbing a seven story building today in Moscow, and putting up a huge anti Putin yellow banner across an entire billboard that was facing the Kremlin. The banner said “Putin Go Away” and had a picture of Putin with an X over his face, and it was visible all over central Moscow and got a lot of attention until the police took it down.

Werman: I’m sure those protestors were wearing gloves.

Barton: I would not be surprised.

Werman: Reporter Julia Barton is speaking with us from Moscow, thank you very much.

Barton: Thank you.

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