The Week - UK (2022-05-07)

Best articles: Europe NEWS 15

7 May 2022 THE WEEK

Burning turf: a

tradition that

deserves to die

The Irish Times
(Dublin)

Should we give up “the God-given right of every freeborn Irishman and woman” to burn turf in their

fireplaces? That, said Pat Leahy, is the question that has been transfixing Irish political debate in

recent days. The environment minister Eamon Ryan’s plan to ban the sale of smoky fuels, including

coal and turf, has been met in some quarters with uproar; rural MPs have threatened to bring down

the coalition government. “I’m as partial as anyone to the Gaelic smell of a turf fire Gaelicly blazing

in the hearth of a Gaelic home.” And I know many regard it as “part of their cultural patrimony”.

But “just because something is a tradition, doesn’t make it worth preserving”. It’s far less important

than preserving the bogs, and meeting Ireland’s climate change obligations. And if we can’t sort out

the turf issue, what are our chances of doing anything big, such as decarbonising transport? It’s

“about 1% of what’s going to have to be done” if Ireland’s carbon emissions are going to be halved

by the end of the decade. “There comes a point, on every issue, where you have to decide if you’re

really going to do something meaningful about it.” On climate change, we have reached that point.

The sinister

deaths of the

energy tsars

La Stampa
(Turin)

Since the invasion of Ukraine, Russian energy bosses have been dying in suspicious circumstances,

says Jacopo Iacoboni. The list is “genuinely scary”. Earlier this year, the bodies of two top executives

at Gazprom, the state gas giant, were found in St Petersburg: Alexander Tyulyakov, hanged in a

garage, and Leonid Shulman, stabbed to death. In April, Vladislav Avayev, a former vice-president

of Gazprombank, which handled Gazprom’s financial transactions, was found dead in his Moscow

apartment along with his wife and daughter; police said he’d first killed his family then turned the

gun on himself. The following day, Sergei Protosenya, chief accountant of a gas company linked to

Gazprombank, was found hanged in his villa on Spain’s Costa Brava, his wife and daughter having

been hacked to death. This too appeared to be a murder-suicide, but Spanish police found no blood

on Protosenya’s clothes and no fingerprints on the knife. All four men had detailed knowledge of the

finances of gas sales to Europe, which are now being used by Vladimir Putin as a weapon. In a speech

in March, Putin talked about rich Russians “with villas in Miami or on the Cote d’Azur”, questioned

their loyalty, and called on Russia to “purify” itself. It appears that this process is now underway.

Contesting election results is a “dangerous game”, says Le Monde. Since Emmanuel Macron won

re-election last month, an “insidious music” has been spreading, questioning his right to govern.

Some point to the high level of abstention (28%) and spoiled ballots (6%), and the fact that – as

Macron admitted himself – many of his votes were cast merely to block his far-right opponent,

Marine Le Pen. It’s no surprise that Le Pen herself has denounced what she called Macron’s “unfair

and shocking methods”. But the radical-left firebrand Jean-Luc Mélenchon, the first round runner

up, has also claimed that Macron lacks “legitimacy” – which is rich, given that Mélenchon was elect-

ed to parliament with barely 20% of registered voters. Alas, even Gérard Larcher, the conser vative

Senate president, has queried Macron’s right to rule. In a democracy, low turnout is regrettable. But

no one doubted Georges Pompidou’s victory in 1969, though a record 31% of voters abstained. Nor

did anyone dispute Jacques Chirac’s re-election in 2002, won largely on second-round votes against

Le Pen’s father Jean-Marie. Can’t the critics see the damage they’re doing? By undermining the

public’s trust in electoral results they’re “shaking the foundations of representative democracy”.

Sore losers who

are damaging

democracy

Le Monde
(Paris)

IRELAND

RUSSIA

FRANCE

Trouble is stirring in the “invisible

republic” of Transnistria, said Tonia

Mastrobuoni in La Repubblica

(Rome). Transnistria was created

during the collapse of the USSR, when

a largely Russian-speaking enclave in

eastern Moldova, between the Dniester

River and the Ukrainian border,

declared itself independent from the

young Moldovan republic. Russia sent

in troops to back the separatists. A

brief war ended in deadlock, which

left the territory and its 500,000 or so

people in limbo. Transnistria, which no

UN member recognises, is “a land lost to time”, said Rob

Picheta on CNN – a Soviet-style mini-state propped up by

Russian subsidies. In Ukraine and Georgia, protecting such

puppet regimes provided the pretext for Russian invasions.

And last week, a Russian general, Rustam Minnekaev, said

that Russia aimed to create a “corridor” across southern

Ukraine to Transnistria, “where the Russian-speaking

population is oppressed”. At the same time, ominously, there

were “unexplained explosions” in Transnistria. Moscow and

Kyiv blamed each other for the blasts.

Russia is preparing to invade Moldova, said Stefan Vlaston

in Adevarul (Bucharest). “There are too many signals to be

considered mere coincidences.” Moldova is, like Ukraine,

Western-leaning (it has requested to

join the EU), but unlike Ukraine, it

has a particularly small army, “and

therefore cannot be defended”.

Vladimir Putin desperately needs a

“trophy” for the 9 May Victory Day

parade. Moldova is “a safe victim”.

There are already 1,500 Russian

troops in Transnistria; an invasion

would also allow Russian forces to

“lay siege to Ukraine’s western flank”.

Moldova is careful to maintain its

neutrality, said Ion Stoica in

Vedomosti (Chisinau). It has good

relations with both the EU and Russia; it has no designs to join

Nato. But it is “sitting on a powder keg”, not just “figuratively,

but literally”. The largest arms depot in eastern Europe is in

Transnistria, full of ammunition left by Soviet troops. An

explosion there would be comparable to the Hiroshima bomb.

A Russian offensive towards Moldova would be “very risky”,

said Jedrzej Winiecki in Polityka (Warsaw). The Kremlin’s push

west to Odesa has largely ground to a halt. Since the sinking of

the cruiser Moskva, it has withdrawn its navy to a safe distance

from Odesa, and it doesn’t have full air superiority. For now,

at least, such an operation is most unlikely. Russia’s recent

statements and actions are probably designed simply to distract

Ukraine’s military from the main theatre of war, in the east.

BELARUS

RUSSIA

UKRAINE

Kyiv

Kharkiv

Mariupol

Crimea

Odesa

Donbas

Black Sea

MOLDOVA

Transnistria

ROMANIA

Transnistria: the breakaway republic in the Kremlin’s sights

occupied by

Russia

Areas