The disputes since January 1 surrounding the gas conflicts between Russia and Ukraine have be a major source of confusion for the European community. Russia has accused Ukrainian leaders of stealing Russian-based company Gazprom’s gas supplies that were en route to European customers. From the other perspective, Ukraine has blamed Russia for cutting its gas supplies to Europe. In addition, Ukraine is dissatisfied with the arrangements by which Ukraine receives its gas from Russia.
Bulgaria's head of the state gas monopoly, Dimitar Gogov, provides his limited insight as to how this conflict has played out for him. He says that amidst the confusion between Russia and Urkraine, he no longer knew who he should believe due to the two countries' opposing statements about the situation. Gogov is not alone, however, and many European officials and even the senior European Union officials feel the same way about the gas conflict. The EU officials claim the best course of action would be to restart gas supplies as early as January 9 and hold off on seeking paper agreements for now. These officials agree that Russia's action of completely cutting off gas supplies has backfired greatly on the country and will take time to repair the damaged relationships.
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