Community | December 24, 2008 | 1 comment

Russia may cut off Ukraine's gas - they say "pay up!"

Image
arcticspirit
Russian gas giant Gazprom has renewed its threat to cut off gas supplies to Ukraine on 1 January, saying a contract dispute has reached a "critical" stage. Russian President Dmitry Medvedev said Ukraine faced Russian "sanctions and demands" if it did not pay off its gas debt "to the last rouble".

Ukraine owes $1.67bn (£1.1bn) for gas and $450m in fines, Gazprom says.
Gazprom denied that any agreement had been reached with Kiev on postponing the repayment, contradicting an announcement by Ukrainian President Viktor Yushchenko

On Tuesday, Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin warned that the era of cheap gas was coming to an end. Earlier, Gazprom said it had warned European customers about possible disruption linked to the Ukraine dispute.

'Pay up'

"If a contract for 2009 is not signed [with Ukraine] then we are not going to deliver gas without a contract," Mr Kupriyanov told reporters in Kiev.

"They should pay the money to the last rouble if they don't want their economy eventually running up against sanctions and demands from the Russian Federation," he said.


▐─────────────▌
▐ Vote up & share ♥ ▌
▐─────────────▌

The fines are huge! Do you think this is fair?
What do you think Putin is trying to pull here?
  1. groups:
  2. tags:
    Political Arcticspirit's Darkside of LIfe Gas Ukraine 1 more
  3.     
    |

1 comment // Russia may cut off Ukraine's gas - they say "pay up!"

top videos