No gas

Seems like I'm not the only person with an interest in Eastern Europe to forsee problems with Russian gas supply to Western Europe. The cut-off by Gazprom seems to have led to knock-on shortages throughout Europe and to have set the alarm bell ringing in London:

The British energy minister, Malcolm Wicks, today said the dispute could impact on supplies to the UK, but said the impact "should be less than elsewhere".

He said there was "no immediate threat" to UK supplies, despite the country now being a net importer of gas.

"We need to look at this one very carefully, but we are not a heavy importer of gas from Russia so the effects here should be less than elsewhere," he said.

EU energy ministers will discuss the growing crisis at an emergency meeting scheduled for Wednesday.