President of Ukraine Victor Yushchenko believes that Ukraine and Russia should return in the nearest future to the issue of establishing a market price on natural gas and its transit.
Victor Yushchenko said this in an interview with Nezavisimaya Gazeta on the eve of his visit to Russia, scheduled for early June.
“We should finally discuss the market price on the Russian gas and market principles of forming the transit policy. Last summer the Ukrainian Prime Minister and RF discussed a synchronious transfer to the market price on natural gas and transit services. But, in December, the Russian side refused this principle. At least, in such a way this situation is perceived in Ukraine, though there are a lot of nuances, which were discussed by Yulia Tymoshenko and Vladimir Putin in Moscow one-to-one. Probably, their agreements were not recorded on paper, but, probably, they formed a certain basis for further building the relations in the gas sphere”, Victor Yushchenko noted.
The President of Ukraine stressed once again that the January Ukrainian-Russian gas agreements are unacceptable for him, neither from political nor from economical point of view. “Ukraine agreed to transfer to market gas prices. It would be correct considering the simultaneous introduction of a market price on gas transit. In this case, nobody would comment on the gas price, even that determined by the formula that is assessed as the most imperfect in Europe by many experts. However, during the talks, the Ukraine side, probably, following, first of all, political reasons, left the transit price at the level that was three years ago. What results did it lead to? As early as in the first quarter, the Russian gas transit became unprofitable for us”, Victor Yushchenko stressed.
