Gas, Moscow-Kiev agreement

Putin does not close the taps

MOSCOW – The Russian energy giant Gazprom will not close the flows of its methane destined for Ukraine. Agreement was reached, therefore, on gas supplies: Russian president Vladimir Putin and Ukrainian president Viktor Yushchenko announced it, promising to begin to heal debt to Moscow as early as Thursday.

Yushchenko flew to Moscow today to find a solution to the supply crisis, which Putin threatened to cut in Kiev starting at 4pm today. The question essentially concerns the prices charged by Moscow: Ukraine challenges the tariffs applied to gas which Russia, in turn, imports at low cost from the Asian republics.

The crisis has been averted: 80 percent of EU imports of Russian gas transit through Ukraine. And they will not be conditioned by the dispute between Moscow and Kiev, assure Gazprom.

February 12 2008