Ex-speaker of Ukrainian parliament: Gas agreements based upon corrupt motivation

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Ex-speaker of the Ukrainian Supreme Rada Vladimir Litvin has announced that gas agreements between Ukraine and Russia are based upon corrupt motivation. Litvin told about it in an interview to Zerkalo Nedeli (Mirror of the Week) published on Saturday. According to the ex-speaker, when the talks started, a Russian high-ranking official called him and conveyed Russian President Vladimir Putin’s position on the issue. “It was as follows: Moscow is ready to sell us gas at a price of $50 for 1,000 cubic meters in the first quarter of the year, but intends to have guarantees that after that Ukraine would buy gas at a market price determined during the talks. Please, note, the figure of $230 was not mentioned,” Litvin said. “I called the country’s leadership and conveyed the essence of the talk. However, basing on the reaction I understood that they are captured by specific approaches and specific formulae,” he says.

It is worth mentioning, from January 1, 2006, Ukraine and Russia switched to monetary pricing for gas transit with simultaneous raising the gas price for Ukrainian consumers from $50 to $95 for 1,000 cubic meters. In the beginning of the year, Naftogaz Ukraine, Gazprom, and RosUkrEnergo agreed on rate for transit of the Russian and Central-Asian gas through the Ukrainian territory. Naftogaz Ukraine agreed to fix the transit rate for these companies for five years at $1.6 for 1,000 cubic meters for 100 km distance in response to fixing for five years the price of gas supplied to Ukraine by RosUkrEnergo at the price of $95 for 1,000 cubic meters. In February 2006, the Ukrainian Cabinet of Ministers put limits on gas price for any category of consumers at $110 for 1,000 cubic meters till 2011.