RusEnergy

27.10.2006 MosNews - Germany should not increase its dependence on Russian gas deliveries, because it is unclear what course will be chosen by Moscow after the Russian President Vladimir Putin leaves his post in 2008. Such an opinion was expressed by the German Economy Minister Michael Glos, whose spoke at an energy conference in Berlin on Thursday, Oct. 26. “We do not know who will manage Russia for the next five or ten years,” he said, quoted by the Bloomberg agency. Michael Glos noted that Russia is strengthening its status of the world’s largest energy resource exporter and added that Germany should diversify its energy vendors. The minister also pointed out that Russia is trying to return a part of its lost status as the global leader in military sphere by aspiring to occupy leading positions in energy issues. “This is why I speak in favor of diversification,” he said. Glos added that the German government plans to formalize its energy relationships with Russia and the European Union in a separate document — an agreement on partnership and cooperation. Germany will insist on resolving this issue when it becomes the EU chair in January 2007. The European Union has been trying to force Russia to sign another binding document — the European Energy Charter, but Moscow officially refused to sign this agreement in its present form, because it feels that the charter binds Russian companies, in particular state-controlled gas monopoly Gazprom, with excessive obligations.