- The Guardian Saturday 30 April 2022
(^18) News
War in Ukraine
Nobel winner
State ‘behind
chemical
attack on
journalist’
Pjotr Sauer
Russian intelligence was behind a
chemical attack on Dmitry Mura-
tov , the Nobel peace prize-winning
editor of the Russian independent
newspaper Novaya Gazeta , US offi -
cials have said.
Muratov ha d previously said he
boarded a train on 18 April heading
from Moscow to the city of Samara
when he was splashed with red paint
containing acetone by an attacker
who told him : “Muratov, this is for
you from our boys.”
At the time, t he veteran journalist
posted on his Telegram channel pho-
tographs of his face and body covered
in red oil paint, saying his eyes were
“burning terribly” after the assault.
The US declassifi ed intelligence
assessment, fi rst reported by the
Washington Post , concluded that
the operatives were working for
unnamed Russian spy services.
Since Novaya Gazeta was founded
by Muratov and colleagues in 1993,
it has covered some of the country’s
most sensitive topics, including the
wars in Chechnya, the persecution of
the LGBTQ+ community and Russian
government corruption.
Six of its journalists, including
Anna Politkovskaya, have been killed
in retaliation for their reporting. The
paper announced on 28 March it
was suspending operations for the
duration of the war after it received
repeated warnings from the state cen-
sor, Roskomnadzor.
Hours after the train attack on
Muratov, a pro-Russia military Tel-
egram channel called “ Union Z
paratroopers ” claimed responsibil-
ity for the incident, posting footage
of the attack online. According to an
English translation of the post, the
group vowed to “come after” those
supporting what it claimed were lies
about alleged atrocities that took
place in the Ukrainian town of Bucha.
“As we promised, in the near future
our veterans will remind the ‘great
patriots ’ that the blood of our glorious
sons will not go unanswered. You,
bastards, write about the Ukrainian-
invented ‘Bucha tragedy ’ and support
this lie, but you don’t notice how our
guys’ throats are cut! We will come
after all of you, just wait!!!,” read the
group’s statement, which has since
been deleted.
Cold war Polish
villagers fi rst to feel
the chill as Russia
cuts off gas supplies
Kate Connolly
Warsaw
N
atalia Pałczyńska
was in shock after
the heating and hot
water in the primary
school where she is
head teacher went
off without warning on Wednesday
afternoon. “We were completely
taken aback,” she said. If the gas did
not start fl owing again soon, she
added: “ We’ll have no choice but to
close our doors until it does.”
The school in Mie śisku, a
village in western Poland, was in
one of about 10 administrative
districts in which health centres,
kindergartens and local businesses- as well as thousands of residents
- lost heating after Moscow
stopped gas supplies to Poland and
Bulgaria at 8am on Wednesday.
The area aff ected was quite small,
and unusual in that it was solely
dependent on Russia for gas. But
it was seen as an indication as
to what may happen on a wider
scale if Russia turn s off supplies
to countries far more dependent
than Poland, which gets 40% of
its gas needs from Russia and
only uses gas for 9% of its energy
requirements.
Mateusz Morawiecki , the prime
minister, called it a “direct attack” ,
accusing Russia of “putting a pistol
to our heads”, while saying Poland
would “ manage so that the Polish
people will not feel any change”,
and urging them in a televised
address: “ Please don’t be afraid.”
Halting gas supplies was, said
the Kremlin, a reaction to Warsaw
and Sofi a’s failure to agree to its
demand that future gas payments
be made in roubles.
I t has pushed Europe to the brink
of an energy crisis, prompting a
20% increase in the already rising
wholesale gas price. There is
anxiety Russia could do the same
elsewhere, such as to Gazprom’s
most important customer in
Europe, Germany – which takes
55% of its gas from Russia and has
paid it €5 bn for gas and oil since
the start of the war in Ukraine – orRunning from Norway through
Denmark to Poland, it will be able
to tranport about 10bn cubic metres
of gas every year, covering about
a half of requirements. Another
pipeline nearing completion will
connect Poland to the LNG terminal
in the Lithuanian port city of
Klaipeda. Further existing pipelines
connect Poland with Germany and
the Czech Republic.
“Poland was not surprised by
what’s happened, it was something
that was always expected,” said
Joanna Ma ćkowiak-Pandera,
the CEO of Energii Forum, an
nongovernmental organisation
spanning business, administration
and science that focuses on energy
transition. She hoped it might
speed up Poland’s decarbonisation
eff orts, not least, she said, because
“it’s now clear to most people that
sales of fossil fuels have literally
fuelled Russian aggression”.
The image being projected by
business leaders and politicians
may be one of stoicism, and it
has helped to unify a polarised
country, but “the atmosphere is
extremely nervous”, she said.
This was refl ected in the rejections
for interview requests from 12
manufacturers who are highly
reliant on gas , one of whom
admitted the “issue is right now too
delicate” to talk about.
Ma ćkowiak-Pandera, asks
whether the drive for derusyfi kacja
(derussifi cation) will push
dekarbonizacja (decarbonisation)
down the agenda, boosting demand
for coal still further, or, as she
hopes, help to wean Poland off it.
Support for phasing out Russian
coal is high – 94% of citizens in a
recent poll said they were ready to
pay more to switch supplies.to others such as Italy, Finland,
Croatia or Latvia, which are also
heavily reliant on Moscow.
Industry in Poland is so far
putting on a brave face. “We are
quite well prepared for this,” said
Tomasz Zieli ński , the president of
the board of the Polish Chamber
of Chemical Industry, which
represents about 13,000 businesses
and more than 320,000 jobs. In
his offi ce in downtown Warsaw,
he cited the fact that the country’s
gas storage facilities were 76% full,
compared with an EU average of
only 30% (33% in Germany).
In 2015 a liquefi ed natural gas
(LNG) terminal was opened in the
north-west port city of Świnoujście ,
near the German border, that is
capable of covering a quarter of
Poland’s gas needs. It is being
extended to increase the intake by
a bout 10%. It is now a symbol of
the nation’s hope in bezpieczeństwo
energetyczne (energy security), the
new buzz phrase.
This autumn the Baltic pipeline,
viewed as a response to the
German-Russian Nord Steam 2
project, is due to go into operation.▲ Dmitry Muratov, the editor of
Novaya Gazeta, after the attack▲ People in Lublin, Poland, attend
an event to show solidarity with
Ukrainian residents in their city
PHOTOGRAPH: WOJTEK JARGILO/EPA‘It’s now clear that
sales of fossil fuels
have literally fuelled
Russian aggression’Joanna Maćkowiak-Pandera
Energii Forum CEO