Gazprom CEO Alexei Miller is seen during his meeting with Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin,... 
(AP)
Russia's state-controlled gas monopoly Gazprom said it began pumping gas to Europe Tuesday. But EU officials said no gas was flowing and their monitors were not allowed full access to either nation's gas control rooms; Russia later brought monitors to Gazprom's central control room in Moscow.
Several European nations were growing desperate. Bulgaria has lost all of its gas supplies and has only two days worth of reserves. Slovakia, which has lost 97 percent of its gas supplies, said it was ready to restart an aging Soviet nuclear power plant despite EU objections.
Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin is to meet his Bulgarian and Slovakian counterparts in Moscow on Wednesday.
Sales of electric heaters have soared and thousands of businesses in eastern Europe have been forced to cut production or even close. Millions of people have been affected by the heating crisis or involuntary layoffs.
Underscoring political tensions behind the gas dispute, Gazprom deputy head Alexander Medvedev accused Washington of encouraging Ukraine's defiance. "It looks like they are dancing to music that is orchestrated not in Ukraine," he said.
State Department spokesman Sean McCormack called the Russian accusation "bizarre ... totally without foundation."
Ukrainian energy adviser Bohdan Sokolovsky said Russia deliberately shipped the gas along a technically arduous route that requires Ukraine to cut out domestic consumers before it can deliver gas to the Balkans. He said a gas entry point on the Russian border at Sudzha and a gas pumping station near the Romanian border where Gazprom wants its gas delivered are not linked by an export pipeline.
Medvedev insisted that Russia deliberately chose Sudzha because it is an export pipeline with direct access to nations hit hard in the dispute, including Bulgaria, Romania and Turkey.
Ukrainian President Viktor Yushchenko accused Russia of using the dispute to try to wrest control of the pipelines from Ukraine.
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