Turkmenistan blamed Russia's state natural gas monopoly today for a pipeline blast that shut off shipments to Russia _ an unusual show of tension that could help Western efforts to buy Turkmen gas directly, AP reported. Turkmenistan's Foreign Ministry said in a flurry of statements that Russia's Gazprom decided on short notice to reduce the amount of gas it takes from Turkmenistan. The blast, which occurred late Wednesday, «was caused by a gross unilateral violation by Gazpromexport of the norms and rules of the natural gas sales agreement,» the statement said. Another statement said Gazprom's actions were «rash and irresponsible» and put lives at risk. Gazprom has not commented, but Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov suggested Gazprom was not at fault. «This accident is purely technical,» Lavrov said late Friday, according to Russian news agency RIA-Novosti. «I am counting on the fact that this will all be quickly settled.»
