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EU’s energy policy brings ‘Hitler’ jibe from Poland By Daniel Dombey in Brussels Published: April 30 2006 18:37 | Last updated: April 30 2006 18:37 Europe’s attempts to forge a common energy policy suffered a serious reverse on Sunday when a prominent EU minister likened a €5bn Russian-German pipeline deal to the Hitler-Stalin pact of 1939. ADVERTISEMENT Radek Sikorski, Polish defence minister, said Angela Merkel, German chancellor, had refused Warsaw’s request to renegotiate the deal, which Poland fears could leave it vulnerable to a shut-off of Russian gas supplies of the sort Ukraine suffered at the start of this year....

Berlin confirms report of Gazprom credit under Schroeder govt The German economy ministry has confirmed that the previous government of Gerhard Schroeder had guaranteed a credit of one billion euros (1.2 billion dollars) for the Russian group Gazprom's Baltic pipeline project. An inter-ministerial commission rushed through a "decision in principle" on October 24 last year while waiting for a new coalition to be formed by now Chancellor Angela Merkel, a spokesman for the economy minister said, confirming reports published Saturday in the Suddeutsche Zeitung (SZ). The report comes after Schroeder was voted in Thursday as head of the supervisory board...

Defiant Schroeder starts gas job Thursday, March 30, 2006; Posted: 8:07 a.m. EST (13:07 GMT) MOSCOW, Germany (Reuters) -- German ex-Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder denied cashing in on his connections as he started a lucrative job on Thursday as head of a Russian-led gas pipeline project. Schroeder was elected to the 250,000 euros a year ($300,000) post of chairman of the shareholders' committee of the North European Gas Pipeline (NEGP) company at the panel's first meeting in Moscow. Critics say the Social Democrat acted with unseemly haste in accepting the job overseeing the $5 billion pipeline project, whose construction was sealed...

Polish president rips German Baltic gas pipeline ahead of Berlin trip Berlin, March 4,IRNA Germany-Poland-Kaczynski Polish President Lech Kaczynski on Saturday harshly criticized the construction of a new gas pipeline under the Baltic Sea from Russia to Germany ahead of his first-ever visit to Germany next week. "There are no economic reasons for this pipeline. We are allies of Germany, joint members of NATO and the EU. So why is there a need for this pipeline bypassing Poland?" Kaczynski told Der Spiegel news magazine in an interview due to hit the newsstands on Sunday. Kaczynski who took office on December...

For a decade Washington has been backing the Turkish and Azerbaihan governments to steer the export of Caspian region crude oil away from Russia. Russia's newest riposte has been to ally the Russian and Iranian oil industries, and open up the shortest, cheapest, and most lucrative oil route of all, southwards out of the Caspian to Iran. The economics of the southward route are the latest blow for the Bush Administration, as it tries to redraw the geography of the Caucasus on an anti-Russian map. But for oil exporters and shippers in the Caspian, President George Bush's jawboning looks to...