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Putin tells EU of risk to gas supply via Ukraine: reports
2009-11-01
MOSCOW (AFP) - Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin warned the European Union on Sunday that gas supplies via Ukraine may be disrupted because of a payment dispute with Kiev, news agencies quoted his office as saying. Putin telephoned his Swedish counterpart Fredrik Reinfeldt, whose country holds the rotating EU presidency, to "draw his attention to signals, including those sent through official channels to Kiev, concerning possible payment problems for the delivery of Russian gas," a spokesman was quoted as saying. As a result, "problems may occur in the transit of Russian gas via Ukrainian territory to European consumers," he said. Russian gas supplies were cut off to a dozen European countries for two weeks in January as part of a bitter dispute over payments and prices between Russia and Ukraine. A European Commission spokesman on Saturday told Putin to quit scaremongering over its gas supplies, which he said was "all part of the Ukraine presidential election campaign" which culminates in a January vote. The spokesman said then that the EU had not yet been notified by Moscow of any potential gas supply problems under a formal mechanism put in place after chaos in past chapters of the recurrent crisis. "It is not for European citizens to suffer because of any potential conflict between Russia and Ukraine over payment for gas supplies destined for Europe," the spokesman said. Putin himself warned on Friday that "It seems we are again having problems with the payment of our energy supplies which is extremely sad." He said his Kiev counterpart Yulia Tymoshenko told him that Ukraine's president, Viktor Yushchenko, "is blocking normal cooperation between the central bank... and the Ukrainian government and blocking the transfer of appropriate funds. "The question is: what are we to do?" Putin underlined. Tymoshenko is running against arch-foe Yushchenko as well as the more pro-Russian Viktor Yanukovich in a presidential poll, the first round of which is scheduled for January 17. Hit harder than most by global recession, Ukraine faces a 15 percent contraction of its economy this year. Earlier this week Naftogaz issued a statement saying it will pay for October gas supplies on time. Gazprom declined to comment on Friday. Strategies to lessen European dependence on Russian gas -- and avoid what Brussels sees as recurrent blackmail at the onset of each winter -- will be discussed in Washington this week at a summit between the United States and the 27-nation EU. A new EU-US energy council will meet for the first time on Wednesday.
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