EU nations accuse Russia of using natural gas as ‘blackmail’

By VANESSA GERA and VESELIN TOSHKOV
Associated Press

WARSAW, Poland (AP) — Poland and Bulgaria  have accused Moscow of using natural gas to blackmail their countries. Russia’s state-controlled energy company said it would stop supplying the two European nations with gas on Wednesday because they refused to pay in Russian rubles. European Union officials were holding emergency talks on Wednesday on the gas cutoff, which they also called blackmail. Russian authorities have warned they could cut off gas supplies to other nations as well. In parliament in Warsaw, Poland’s prime minister called the move “an attack on Poland.” He was cheered by lawmakers when he said the country was safe because it had worked for years to move away from Russian energy.