Medvedev instructs Gazprom to stick to gas contract with Ukraine

RUSSIA

President Dmitry Medvedev on Monday instructed the head of the energy giant Gazprom to not change an already signed contract with Ukraine on transit fees for delivery of Russian gas crossing Ukrainian territory.

Alexei Miller, CEO of Gazprom, told Medvedev that Kiev proposed changing the contract signed in January, under which Gazprom currently pays 1.7 U.S. dollars per 1,000 cubic meters per 100 km for the gas delivery.

“You need to act in accordance with the signed agreement. We drafted it especially, it didn’t come easy, and we’re working according to this,” the Interfax news agency quoted Medvedev as saying.

Miller also told Medvedev that Ukraine has fully paid for Russian gas deliveries in the past two months, and Kiev intended to use the transit rates to prepay for gas.

Russia cut off gas shipments to Ukraine in January over disputes on pricing and transition fees, leaving more than a dozen European nations without heating gas for nearly two weeks in the depth of winter.

Russia supplies Europe with about a quarter of its gas, 80 percent of which passed through Ukrainian pipelines.