Russia’s premier and the president of the EU’s executive Commission have clashed over EU plans to stop crucial suppliers of oil or gas from also directly managing pipelines – a move that threatens to hit Russian gas monopoly Gazprom, abcnews reports. Vladimir Putin on Thursday said the plans affected Russian enterprises and likened them to “property confiscation.” But Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso said Europe’s new energy framework, the so-called Third Energy Package, was in line with World Trade Organization Rules and would affect foreign and domestic companies alike. Barroso said the new framework “is now approved legislation.”
