Russia blames technical problems for curbed oil deliveries

Russia announced on Monday that a sharp cut in deliveries of crude oil for the Czech Republic was caused by technical problems. Russian trade envoy to Prague Grigori Sarishvili told Czech Trade and Industry Minister Martin Říman that the decrease in deliveries of crude oil for the Czech Republic happened because of problems with oil extraction as well as of changes to the structure of Russian oil companies, rather than by a political decision in retaliation for last week’s signing of a Czech-American treaty on positioning a US tracking radar base on Czech territory.