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Belarus Ukraine. Previous Next. France is leading an effort by several West European countries to present an offer to Russia soon to "loosen its grip on oil and gas sectors" and thereby help ensure energy security for its partners in return for longer-term contracts and financing assistance from "the World Bank and other international bodies to build more gas pipelines," the "Financial Times" reported on 9 February.
The French also want Russia to ratify the Energy Charter Treaty, which it has already signed, to provide a legal framework for the energy business, the London-based daily added. The European Commission is reportedly preparing a Transit Protocol to the treaty, which would have the effect of ending Gazprom's monopoly on Russia's pipelines.
Russia has pledged to put energy security at the center of its current presidency of the Group of Eight leading industrialized countries. The French-led project might nonetheless prove to be "wishful thinking," according to an unnamed "Western energy diplomat" quoted by the "Financial Times.
The State Department has reportedly been unsuccessful in its efforts to persuade unnamed EU countries to pressure Moscow to reform its trade practices. One unnamed "senior U. They have been a source of corruption for years. They are instruments for arrangements by which some people buy cheap and sell expensive. He also said that Russia will go ahead with plans to sell Tor-M1 ground-to-air anti-aircraft missile systems to Iran.
