Russia seeks to ease EU fears in Ukraine gas dispute
Russia on Wednesday allayed European fears of a potential gas supply crisis due to a payment row with Ukraine after the government in Kiev sent a minister to Moscow and pledged to settle the dispute.
Russia`s Gazprom energy giant issued a statement after the talks with Ukraine`s Energy Minister Yury Boiko, saying an agreement had been reached by which "the current government of Ukraine takes under its control the solving of this problem."
Amid concerns about a possible re-run of a gas cut-off last year that caused knock-on disruption in EU countries, Gazprom`s chairman, Dmitry Medvedev, said there was no need for concern.
"European consumers won`t suffer," he told Russian news agencies. "For European consumers the situation will be absolutely comfortable."
Boiko also suggested that a resolution was in sight.
"I hope the situation will stabilise in the near future," he was quoted as saying after the talks.
On Tuesday, Gazprom threatened to cut gas supplies to Ukraine, a key gas transit route to EU countries, if arrears of over a billion dollars (700 million euros) were not paid this month.
On Wednesday, Medvedev said that the debt owed by Ukrainian "consumers" -- apparently a reference to industrial users -- exceeded 1.3 billion dollars (0.9 billion euros).
Around 80 percent of the gas shipped from Russia to western Europe transits through Ukraine.
Brussels on Tuesday urged a "speedy settlement" of the issue and on Wednesday a European Commission spokesman said that a meeting of EU experts would take place in mid-October to discuss the issue.
Russia and Ukraine would be invited to brief the EU gas coordination group, the spokesman said.
The assurance from Gazprom came after Ukraine`s pro-Western President Viktor Yushchenko, who has angered Moscow with his vows to join NATO, surprised commentators by reaching out to the Russia-friendly Regions party of Prime Minister Yanukovych.
Yushchenko offered the Regions party the possibility of joining a broad coalition government, despite results from a parliamentary election on Sunday that gave a slim majority to pro-Western forces.
"My main goal is that Ukraine should emerge united from these elections," Yushchenko said.
Commentators in both countries interpreted Gazprom`s threat -- especially in its timing -- as a politicised response to the rising fortunes of the pro-Western parties in Ukraine, including Yushchenko`s supporters and those of firebrand politician Yulia Tymoshenko.
Russia and its former Soviet neighbour have had tense relations as Ukraine has moved towards the West and Yushchenko has declared joining the NATO alliance to be a strategic goal.
"Victory by the `oranges` cannot suit either Russia or Gazprom," said the Russian broadsheet Kommersant, referring to the pro-democracy Orange Revolution of 2004 that was spearheaded by Yushchenko and Tymoshenko.
The newspaper pointed out that Tymoshenko has previously called for a re-examination of the opaque arrangements by which Ukraine receives gas from Russia via an intermediary company, RosUkrEnergo.
The news website gazeta.ru quoted an expert, Dmitry Abzalov, as saying that Tymoshenko wanted to insert gas firm Itera, with which she has been "affiliated" in the past, into the Ukrainian-Russian gas relationship, an option which "does not suit Gazprom."
Analysts said that Russia had learnt from its mistakes after it unsuccessfully interfered in 2004 elections that led to the Orange Revolution and had been forced to adopt a more subtle approach.
But while Moscow`s official line this time around is that it will work with any Kiev government that emerges from the polls, Russian reaction to the possible leadership of Tymoshenko remains unpredictable, they said.
"There are... people who have not learnt anything" from past experience while others want to repair ties with Ukraine, said Viktor Kremenyuk, an analyst with the Moscow-based Institute of USA and Canadian Studies.
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