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Ukraine Paid to Russia, Not in Whole Though
Gazprom and Naftogaz Ukrainy agreed on the amount of paid-up debt. It was $765 million as of yesterday. But $271 million of the debt recognized by Kiev, another $500 million demanded by Gazprom and Gazprom’s status on Ukraine’s domestic market are yet unsettled. So, the talks of the parties have become even tougher on the threshold of Gazprom promise to cut gas supplies to Ukraine starting from March 3.
Ukrainian President Viktor Yushchenko met with First Deputy Prime Minister Alexander Turchinov yesterday to hear the report about complete settlement of gas debt to Russia. Turchinov even showed the payment orders confirming the transfer of funds from Naftogaz Ukrainy to Ukrgaz-Energo.
The problem is that Gazprom and Naftogaz still differ about the debt amount. In January, Russia’s gas monopoly claimed $1.5 billion for supplies of 2007 and 2008. But Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko recognized only the debt of $1.072 billion for 2007. The parties agreed on the settled amount yesterday. Naftogaz Ukrainy announced the reduction in arrears from 5.2 billion hryvnias ($1.03 billion) to 1.368 billion hryvnias ($271 million).
People in Naftogaz specified it paid 3.867 billion hryvnias ($765 million), including 520 million hryvnias ($105 million) February 14, 900 million ($178 million) on February 19 and 2.44 billion ($484 million) February 26 and 27.
Naftogaz recognizes the remaining $271 million but refuses to pay them. In the company, they say Ukrgaz-Energo (Naftogaz holds 50 percent in it) owes dividend for 2006 and 2007 and the amount will go to offset it.
“Paying off past year’s arrears is not the biggest deed, nothing to be proud of. The more so that the problems with gas deliveries in 2008 have only aggravated – no contracts and reports have been sealed either for the Mid Asia’s or for Russia’s gas, i.e. the unexecuted gas consumption is going up in Ukraine,” Gazprom briefer Sergey Kupriyanov said. Gazprom threatened past Wednesday to cut gas supplies to Ukraine by 25 percent starting from March 3.
www.kommersant.com
All the Article in Russian as of Feb. 28, 2008
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