(Eric Watkins
Senior Correspondent
LOS ANGELES, Feb. 8 -- Ukraine's President Viktor Yushenko, continuing a war of words with Russia over plans to revise gas transit agreements, has characterized as "retaliation" OAO Gazprom's threat to cut supplies of natural gas to his country.
"This is a reaction to the statements of the Ukrainian government to withdraw the intermediary from the gas market and revise gas tariffs," Yushenko said in a Feb. 7 live broadcast over national television.
New Ukrainian Prime Minister Yulia Timoshenko wants to increase the tariffs for Russian gas transit across Ukraine to Europe, and she wants to dispense with the RosUkrEnergo intermediary that sells Central Asian gas to Ukraine pumped via Russia.
She said her government would not make any political or economic concessions to Russia regarding the intermediary and would not sell Russia any underground gas storage facilities or transit pipelines.
"The opinions of experts regarding the possibility that Ukraine may cede to Russia a part of its gas assets cannot be taken for serious. There will be no concessions," she said.
"Ukraine has all the necessary reserves to provide gas for itself and prevent even the slightest destabilization of the transit to Europe," she promised, but added her government will begin talks with Russia regarding the debts on Feb. 7.
She was referring to Gazprom's threat on Feb. 6 to halt gas supplies to Ukraine due to an unpaid bill of $1.5 billion for previous deliveries. As of Feb. 6, Gazprom said, about 1.5 bcm of Russian gas had been received by Ukraine, about 25% of the country's gas imports.
"In order for them to continue, we require that the Ukrainian side immediately create the legal basis, sign the appropriate contracts and acts, and in the nearest future settle up on the entire indebtedness for gas," said Gazprom spokesman Sergei Kuprianov.
"If in the next few days before Monday inclusive the situation is not settled, Gazprom will be forced to halt deliveries of Russian gas to Ukraine," he said.
Kuprianov said Russia had increased gas supplies to Turkey, Greece, and Ukraine since the beginning of the year after the countries faced lower deliveries from other suppliers.
"All our partners follow payments schedules and it is only with Ukraine that a paradoxical situation has emerged where it gets the gas it needs, but does not pay for it," he said.
"I fear politics are interfering in major amounts into the Ukrainian gas market and politics are followed by corporate interests, which are camouflaged and hidden and which are difficult to comment on," said Yushenko, who is scheduled to visit Moscow on Feb. 12, the day after the Gazprom deadline.
Contact Eric Watkins at [email protected].
