Czechs are latest casualty in gas dispute
Russian natural gas supplies dropped by 5% to the Czech Republic. Turkey also seeing reduced flow. Emergency meeting called for Monday.
Moscow (Reuters) -- Ukraine and Russia blamed each other for disrupting gas flows to Europe on Sunday, while the reductions in supplies caused by their dispute to spread to the Czech Republic and Turkey.
Russian natural gas supplies dropped by 5% to the Czech Republic, the latest casualty in the stand-off that began when Russia cut off the gas to Ukraine on New Year's day in a dispute over debts and pricing.
"It is the first signal of the Russia-Ukraine crisis in the Czech Republic," said a spokesman for gas importer RWE Transgas.
Germany, Europe's biggest economy, said gas was flowing in as normal. EU energy firms said there would be no effect on their customers as long as the disruptions did not last so long that reserves ran low. Analysts say if it drags on for weeks it will make things tough in the EU.
Earlier Turkey also reported a fall in supplies, joining Poland, Hungary, Romania and Bulgaria, which had already said they were affected.
Russia - long at odds with its neighbour over its ambition to join NATO - has accused Kiev of stealing gas intended for Europe, but Ukraine hit back by alleging Moscow was cutting flows by more than half through a key export pipeline.
"Naftogaz considers the actions of Gazprom as threatening the energy security of Ukraine and Europe, which could bring unpredictable consequences for the entire gas transit system of Europe," Ukraine's state energy company said in a statement.
Ukraine's economy is vulnerable to a prolonged dispute with Russia. A presidential aide said the economy was set to contract 3% to 5% this year, leaving it little room to accept the higher prices Russia is demanding.
Gazprom said on Sunday it was honoring in full its commitments to supply customers in Europe. It blamed Ukraine for siphoning off or blocking deliveries of gas equivalent to one sixth of the total supply.
In a sign the firm was in no mood for compromise, Gazprom chief executive Alexei Miller said that since Ukraine had turned down a previous proposal to pay $418 per 1,000 cubic metres of gas, he was raising the price to $450.
The European Union, which gets about a fifth of its gas from pipelines that cross Ukraine, has demanded that transit and supply contracts be honoured. EU president the Czech Republic said it would not get involved directly in the row.
The EU has called an emergency meeting of envoys for Monday to discuss the dispute, which has again placed Russia's reputation as a reliable gas supplier under intense scrutiny.
Russia's ties with the West are still fraught after it waged a war with Georgia last August, and the gas row is likely to be viewed in some capitals as fresh evidence that Russia bullies its pro-Western neighbours.
Oleksandr Shlapak, first deputy chief of staff to Ukrainian President Viktor Yushchenko, said the EU needed to send a signal to Russia that it cannot use energy for blackmail.
"If Europe ... does not help us get out of this situation, then it can expect a more aggressive position from Russia on gas and other issues," Shlapak told Reuters.
With no negotiations in sight, both sides said they would bring cases against the other in an arbitration court in Stockholm that deals with international commercial disputes.
A similar gas row briefly disrupted supplies to Europe three years ago. That crisis prompted calls for the EU to diversify its energy supplies, but it has struggled to break its reliance on Russian gas. Gazprom forecasts EU dependence will grow.
Gazprom said on Saturday it was increasing supplies through alternative routes, bypassing Ukraine, but those pipelines do not have the capacity to fully replace Ukrainian routes.
Ukraine, already reeling from an economic crisis, is anxious not to be blamed by the EU for the supply disruptions in case that hurts its long-term ambition of joining the bloc.
Political leaders of Russia and Ukraine, most of them on holiday, have been silent on the issue.
European Union customers pay about $500 per 1,000 cubic metres of Russian gas, though that price is set to drop in line with crude oil, which tumbled in 2008. Gas prices traditionally follow oil prices with a time lag of about six months. 
