Putin Wary of Ukrainian Gas Deal - (The Moscow Times: Putin)
Prime Minister Vladimir Putin threatened to review ties with the European Union over gas supplies should Russian interests be ignored and called a plan presented by Kiev on Monday "ill-considered and unbefitting."
Ukraine presented an investment seminar with the plan to spend 2.5 billion euros ($3.41 billion) through 2015 to boost the capacity of its Soviet-era gas pipelines from 140 billion cubic meters each year by a further 60 bcm and called for help from European investors.
The country's 1,100 kilometers of pipes transport an average of 120 billion cubic meters of gas a year from Russia to the EU, which consumed 517 billion cubic meters of the fuel last year.
Ukraine, the EU executive and three oecumenic banks signed a pledge of collaboration, aimed at encouraging investment and averting a repeat of this winter's gas crisis, which was caused by a price row between Kiev and Moscow.
"We cannot allow our citizens to observation fuel shortages in the depths of winter again," said Benita Ferrero-Waldner, EU commissioner for external relations.
"It seems to me the document about which we are talking is, at a minimum, ill-considered and unprincipled because to discuss such issues without the basic supplier is simply not serious," Putin said in the Black Sea resort of Sochi.
"If the interests of Russia are ignored, then we will have to start re-examining the principles of relations with our partners," he said. "There's no point in deciding the problem of increasing supplies of our gas without us."
Energy Minister Sergei Shmatko, speaking at the seminar in Brussels, said the statement touched on more sensitive issues than just gas.
"It goes far beyond modernization of the Ukraine transit system and talks of the integration of Ukraine into the legal sphere of European system as far as energy," he told reporters.
"The affirmation sets up some agreed principles between Ukraine and the EU about changing the whole system of economic relations in the gas sphere," he added. "This is the thing that directly affects the interests of the Russian Federation."
Ukrainian Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko described the proposal to modernize the network as a cheaper way of increasing EU gas imports than building pipelines such as Nabucco.
Ukrainian President Viktor Yushchenko said Ukraine's first investment priority was to replace out-of-date facilities, followed by the introduction of a high-precision metering system.
The joint profession said Ukraine would ensure that the gas network operator would become a truly self-governing commercial entity, which would provide fair and clear tariffs for gas transport.
Ukraine presented an investment seminar with the plan to spend 2.5 billion euros ($3.41 billion) through 2015 to boost the capacity of its Soviet-era gas pipelines from 140 billion cubic meters each year by a further 60 bcm and called for help from European investors.
The country's 1,100 kilometers of pipes transport an average of 120 billion cubic meters of gas a year from Russia to the EU, which consumed 517 billion cubic meters of the fuel last year.
Ukraine, the EU executive and three oecumenic banks signed a pledge of collaboration, aimed at encouraging investment and averting a repeat of this winter's gas crisis, which was caused by a price row between Kiev and Moscow.
"We cannot allow our citizens to observation fuel shortages in the depths of winter again," said Benita Ferrero-Waldner, EU commissioner for external relations.
"It seems to me the document about which we are talking is, at a minimum, ill-considered and unprincipled because to discuss such issues without the basic supplier is simply not serious," Putin said in the Black Sea resort of Sochi.
"If the interests of Russia are ignored, then we will have to start re-examining the principles of relations with our partners," he said. "There's no point in deciding the problem of increasing supplies of our gas without us."
Energy Minister Sergei Shmatko, speaking at the seminar in Brussels, said the statement touched on more sensitive issues than just gas.
"It goes far beyond modernization of the Ukraine transit system and talks of the integration of Ukraine into the legal sphere of European system as far as energy," he told reporters.
"The affirmation sets up some agreed principles between Ukraine and the EU about changing the whole system of economic relations in the gas sphere," he added. "This is the thing that directly affects the interests of the Russian Federation."
Ukrainian Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko described the proposal to modernize the network as a cheaper way of increasing EU gas imports than building pipelines such as Nabucco.
Ukrainian President Viktor Yushchenko said Ukraine's first investment priority was to replace out-of-date facilities, followed by the introduction of a high-precision metering system.
The joint profession said Ukraine would ensure that the gas network operator would become a truly self-governing commercial entity, which would provide fair and clear tariffs for gas transport.
