In contrast with the work of its journalists, the board of directors of the reference Atlantist journal Le Monde has imposed, through its headlines and editorials, an anti-Russian primary reading about the gas crisis that opposed Moscow and Kiev.

On its January 3rd editorial, “La guerre du gaz”, the chief editor wrote: “The first war of the 21st Century has been declared. A country has just cut off the energy supply to another one because it does not comply with its demands. Russia, the first largest gas producer in the world, has just pressed the button of energy alarm. In the middle of the winter, Vladimir Putin cut off the supply that enabled 50 million Ukrainians to warm up and boost their economy”.
As such, the bombings on Afghan and Iraqi populations have not been wars, while correction of Russian gas prices as per the market is a war. Therefore, Vladimir Putin is a monster ready to freeze to death 50 million Ukrainians!

On January 4, the secretariat of the chief editor’s office changed the title of an article, very moderate, and wrote instead: “Moscow is committed to re-establish gas supply to Europe”, which made people to mistakenly think that Russia had also cut off gas supply to good paymasters, the Europeans, declaring at the same time the “Gas War”.

Just on January 5, in an article that reads “Russia imposes its conditions upon Ukraine regarding gas prices”, the readers finally get to know that Vladimir Putin had indeed good reasons to claim the application of market prices, although they were five times higher than the political price of friends charged so far to Kiev”.

Ossama Lotfy