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Gas issue takes center stage again
Vladimir Putin and Yulia Timoshenko give energy supplies another try
Today, the Crimean resort of Yalta played host to the summit of CIS prime ministers. Russian PM Vladimir Putin met with his Ukrainian counterpart Yulia Timoshenko for a discussion last night. The PMs addressed the entire agenda of Russian-Ukrainian cooperation, with the gas issue in the spotlight, as usual. After their talks that lasted far into the night, both Putin and Timoshenko demonstrated their satisfaction with its results in every possible way. In the words of the Russian PM, they considered how to bring bilateral trade to the pre-crisis level, with a special emphasis on the need to lift trade barriers, and touched upon nuclear energy, agriculture and aircraft building. Timoshenko proposed a swap of minority stakes in the Ukrainian aircraft building holding and Russia's United Aircraft Corporation, Putin said. He, in turn, sees this option as completely likely: “We will definitely benefit from uniting our efforts in such an important high-tech area. But we have to outline the principles for such a swap.” Meanwhile, not once in the last few years have Putin and Timoshenko neglected the age-long gas topic. This time in Yalta, the issue was again moved to the forefront. Timoshenko pledged to ensure stable gas transit via Ukraine, while Putin assured her that Russia would honor all of its commitments. Moscow and Kiev resolved to revise certain arrangements, above all the penalty provisions for gas consumption below the contracted volume. “Despite the agreements on gas purchases by Ukraine reached earlier, Gazprom and Naftogaz of Ukraine will negotiate new volumes and terms,” Putin explained, adding: “There will be no excess gas contracted by Ukraine, and no fines.” Notably, in the run-up to the meeting, Ukrainian President Viktor Yushchenko published a “gas” address to his Russian colleague Dmitry Medvedev, in which he slammed the moves of his own government and suggested setting up a working group to thrash out amendments to gas contracts. As such, he suggested improving the gas price formula. In response, Timoshenko acknowledged that the gas contracts could be resented by many politicians, because in previous years the market had been greatly corrupt, with “billions of dollars channeled not into budgets, but to intermediaries, which were removed by our government in early 2009.” Analytical department of RIA RosBusinessConsulting
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