Have Yanukovich and Fradkov agreed on gas prices?

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Ukraine and Russia have come to an agreement on details of establishing gas prices for the end of 2006 and the beginning of 2007. Ukraine’s Prime Minister Viktor Yanukovich made the announcement on August 16 after talks with Russia’s Prime Minister Mikhail Fradkov. According to the Ukrainian premier, “it will be market prices, but the mechanism of establishing them will be transparent, and they will correspond with the level of the economic relations between Ukraine and Russia,” a REGNUM correspondent reports. Viktor Yanukovich declined to name the price adding he would announce it later. Besides, Yanukovich noted that 24.5 billion cubic meters of gas would pump into Ukraine’s underground gas reservoirs, and the country would pump in 130 million cubic meters of gas.

Earlier, Ukraine’s Prime Minister Viktor Yanukovich declared that his government did not intend to revise gas agreements with Russia, but at the same time, it would consider a success decreasing the current price “even by a dollar.”

On January 4, Gazprom and Naftogaz Ukraine agreed that from January 4, 2006, Gazprom supplied gas to RosUkrEnergo at a price of $230 per 1,000 cubic meters. Gazprom and RosUkrEnergo signed a contract on it for five years.