Reply #14: The result: the most monumental non-nuclear explosion and fire ever seen

[jmcgowanjm]

At the time(1981), the United States was attempting to
block Western Europe from importing Soviet natural gas.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/4394002/

"That is really far fetched."-Masha Lipman-CSPAN
120504
Answering a caller asking about The Ukraine Election
being about control of oil/gas.

Russia to boost gas transportation via Blue Stream pipeline
http://www.russiajournal.com/news/cnews-article.shtml?nd=46588

The Gas Princess:
Lazarenko was the chief patron of one of Yushchenko's
biggest supporters, Yuliya Timoshenko of the United
Energy Systems of the Ukraine (UESU), who made
fantastic profits at a time of economic recession.
http://www.antiwar.com/justin/?articleid=4072

Russian energy companies such as Lukoil and
Gazprom,
which have close links to the Russian state, operate
in
Ukraine as de facto branches of the Russian foreign
ministry, and the former Russian prime minister and
Gazprom chairman, Victor Chernomyrdin(Russia's
James Baker), has
been ambassador to Ukraine since 2001.

http://wsws.org/articles/2004/dec2004/ukra-d01.shtml

Ukraine took a step in accommodating Russia as well
and announced that it had agreed to allow for the transport of
up to 85 million tons of Russian oil over a 15-year period as
part of a comprehensive oil and gas agreement signed
between Ukraine's Prime Minister Viktor Yanukovych
and Russian Prime Minister Mikhail Fradkov. The
document noted that annual amounts, rates and
directions would be assigned by Ukraine's Ministry of Fuel
and Energy in cooperation with Russia's Ministry of Industry
and Energy.

The agreement basically rejected any possibility of
transporting oil from the Caspian Sea region via
the Odesa-Brody line. President Kuchma said that
the Odesa-Brody pipeline would now be utilized for the
transport of Russian oil.

http://www.ukrweekly.com/Archive/2004/340401.shtml