Ukraine is preparing to take Russia to court to prove it has violated accords in a worsening gas dispute, which has ended a thaw in relations, President Viktor Yanukovych said Tuesday.
Ukraine
is
preparing to take
Russia
to
court to prove it has violated accords in a worsening gas dispute, which has
ended a thaw in relations, President Viktor Yanukovych said Tuesday.
Throwing diplomatic niceties aside, Yanukovych said Ukraine was not a
"poor relation" of Moscow, in his strongest attack on the Kremlin
since taking power in 2010 for a presidency that most believed would have a
pro-Russsian tinge.
Russia
spat
back that Yanukovych was misleading the public with his figures, on the day
Prime Minister Vladimir Putin opened a pipeline which he said meant
Ukraine
would
lose its exclusive transit of Russian gas to
Europe
.
"
Russia
's
position is categorically unacceptable and if it does not change then we will
go to international arbitration," Yanukovych told the Kommersant daily in
an interview.
"We have already drawn up the materials for going to court. We are absolutely
sure that international agreements have been violated," he said. "Court,
yes, it's an extreme measure but nothing has changed for one-and-a-half
years."
Ukraine
is
seeking a revision to accords with
Russia
signed by the previous Ukrainian government to obtain lower prices for its gas
imports from
Russia
's
Gazprom. Yanukovych said that
Kiev
is
overpaying by $5-6 billion annually.
Yanukovych said the basis of Ukraine-Russia gas relations should be the 2001
accords--not the 2009 10-year deal that ended a cut in supplies signed by
ex-prime minister Yulia Tymoshenko, now on trial for abuse of power.
"The price is not fair for
Ukraine
. The
conditions have been set out as if for an enemy," he said.
He said
Ukraine
was
paying way more for Russian gas than
Germany
. If
Kiev
continued "overpaying" in the next 10 years, then
Ukraine
would
lose $60 billion, or 20% of the budget anually.
Recent tough rhetoric against
Kiev
by
Medvedev was "completely incorrect", Yanukovych added. "We are
not poor relations. We are an independent state."
OAO Gazprom (OGZPY) chief executive Alexei Miller responded that
Ukraine
was
receiving Russian gas at cheaper rates than
Hungary
,
Poland
,
Romania
and
Turkey
while
Kiev
's transit fees were higher than those in
Germany
.
"Our Ukrainian colleagues have got on a train called 'cheap Russian gas'
and they don't know what station to get out at," he said. "They don't
know they might end up in a dead end."
Miller said that
Ukraine
had
an obligation to fulfill the 10-year contract signed in 2009 every year right
up until its expiration date in 2019.
Putin said Tuesday's launch of the Nord Stream pipeline that will take Russian
gas to
Europe
means that
Moscow
will
no longer be dependent on
Kiev
for
gas transit. "Our relations will be of a more civilised nature," he
said.
Yanukovych was seen as a pro-Kremlin figure when he came to power after
defeating the leaders of the 2004 Orange Revolution in 2010 polls. But he has
since set integration with the European Union as the goal of his presidency.
However, there are also growing tensions with the EU and the
U.S.
,
which have expressed alarm over the trial and detention of Tymoshenko.
Rejecting charges his administration is behind the trial, Yanukovych told
Kommersant that the process "is not advantageous for me and not what I
needed" but insisted he could not interfere in the work of the courts.
However, he admitted it was "not normal" that Tymoshenko's former
interior minister Yuriy Lutsenko and other former officials had been held in
custody for several months without any verdict in their cases.
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