Russia and Ukraine may be close to a new gas crisis as Kiev faces difficulties making payments, an official accompanying Prime Minister Vladimir Putin to Kazakhstan was quoted as saying Thursday.
"If things are that bad in the financial sphere ... We could come to the conclusion that we could be on the brink of a new gas crisis," news agencies quoted the official as saying, referring to Ukraine's poor economic situation.
Putin was expected to meet his Ukrainian counterpart Yulia Tymoshenko during a gathering of prime ministers of former Soviet states in Kazakhstan.