Russia's President Vladimir Putin, right, meets Ukraine's Prime Minister Viktor Yanukovich in the Moscow Region's Novo-Ogarevo residence.
Photo: Dmitry Azarov
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Putin Called On Kiev to Remember about Debt
During the meeting with Ukrainian Prime Minister Viktor Yanukovich, Russia’s President Vladimir Putin has called on Kiev to remember that the debt to Gazprom will be paid off from the underground storage facilities of Ukraine.
At the same time, Vladimir Putin expressed satisfaction that the debt problem had been sorted out. “I’m very glad that the issue was decided both on the companies’ level and on the level of governments,” he said.
The president reminded that Gazprom has become an owner of a portion of gas stored in the underground storage facilities of Ukraine. “We will proceed from [the fact that] the gas available to us will be fist directed to the needs of Ukrainian consumers,” Putin said as quoted by Vesti TV Channel.
”I would like to request to incline the government’s structures, market participants in the way that, to a great extent, it won’t be the gas shipped via a pipe and under the known schedule from Russia, but the gas that is to be lifted from the underground storage facilities,” the president explained.
On October 2, Russia’s gas monopoly Gazprom warned Ukraine that it would limit gas supplies should Kiev fail to pay the debt during a month. Ukraine responded by promising to settle the debt by November 1.
The negotiations continued October 8. In the end, the parties sealed an agreement on debt settlement and the first tranche of $200 million will be transferred to RosUkrEnergo by October 22, 2007.
According to Russia’s PM Viktor Zubkov, Ukraine will be paying the debt by redistributing gas in its underground storage facilities in favor of Gazprom Export. Of $2-billion arrears, $1.2 billion will be settled by this method.
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