Was this really Michael Rosen's first job? The move would trigger measures to reduce consumption, including rationing gas for selected industrial users, ramping up the production at coal power plants and asking for more gas imports from other suppliers under existing contracts. Italy's technical committee for gas is expected to meet on Tuesday, and the government has warned it could declare a heightened state of alert on gas this week if Russia continues to curb supplies. Italy's Eni said it was told by Russia's Gazprom that it would receive only part of its request for gas supplies on Monday, pushing the country closer to declaring a state of alert that will trigger gas-saving measures. These are some of the main countries signaling a return to coal. Germany, Italy, Austria and the Netherlands have all signaled that coal-fired power plants could help see the continent through a crisis that has sent gas prices surging and added to the challenge facing policymakers battling inflation. Last week, Ankara said It was willing to delay Sweden and Finland's membership of NATO for more than a year unless it received adequate assurances that the two countries were willing to address support for the Kurdish groups.Ī number of European countries could turn back to coal for power generation as less Russian gas gets delivered, threatening a winter crisis if stores are not refilled. Turkey previously said it would block their membership and accused the two Nordic countries of harboring the outlawed Kurdistan Workers'Party (PKK), which is designated as a "terrorist" group by Ankara and its Western allies, as well as other Kurdish groups in Syria.Īny NATO membership deal must be unanimously approved by all 30 members of the military alliance. Sweden and Finland applied to join NATO in May ending decades of military non-alignment in the wake of Russia launching a special military operation in Ukraine in late February. Kalin's comments, following a meeting in Brussels, came after Finland's Prime Minister Sanna Marin admitted the Nordic bids could stall if an agreement with Turkey is not reached before next week’s summit. "The Madrid NATO summit is not the deadline, so our negotiations will continue," Turkish Presidential Spokesman Ibrahim Kalin told journalists on Monday. Negotiations on applications by Finland and Sweden to join NATO and Turkey’s concerns will continue beyond a key NATO summit in Madrid on June 29, according to Turkish Presidential Spokesman
That's not to say others don't visit in 2018 the city hosted several games of the FIFA World Cup, and the region is home to several spa towns like Svetlogorsk.Īlthough it's a small region, home to around half a million people, Kaliningrad is popular with those who are born there… Perhaps its most famous son is the philosopher Immanuel Kant - he never actually left the city limits in his 79 years, though his work traveled much further.
The region averages 23 degrees celsius in summer, and with its history and its access to the sea it's a popular destination for Russian sunseekers. The Russian navy's Baltic Fleet is based in Kaliningrad.Īnd it's a tourist hotspot, both literally and metaphorically. The climate and location makes it a military asset, too. Without it, goods would have to be delivered to southern Russian ports like Novorossiysk on the Black Sea, before an even longer journey by ship to reach the Atlantic. For trade with Europe, and from Russia's western regions, having the port all year is invaluable. Kaliningrad is the only Russian Baltic port which doesn't freeze over in the winter. It gives Russia a link to the EU - both its borders are shared with EU member states - and a year-round Baltic port for trade. Konigsberg was the easternmost city in that key region.Īs students of history might recall, this 'splitting' of Germany was one of the parts of the Versailles Treaty which angered many Germans and arguably led to the rise of Nazism and the Second World War.Īlthough a small region, modern day Kaliningrad remains a strategically important region for Russia. Konigsberg was first part of an enclave in 1918, when the Versailles Treaty following the First World War split Germany by creating a sliver of Poland stretching to the coast, and putting a strip of land between the Danzig (Gdansk) region and the rest of the nation. It remained that way for nearly 50 years. When the German states came together to form one country in the 1870's, it included Prussia - the northern part of which is now Poland - along with Konigsberg and what is now Kaliningrad oblast. Known as Königsberg, or 'King's Mountain,' it centered around a Hanseatic port city which was later the home of the Teutonic Knights - a powerful ruling elite in the days before Germany was unified.īut all that changed in the late 19th and first half of the 20th century.
The region was historically part of Prussia, and later Germany.
0 kommentar(er)
