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Putin: Written deal needed to renew gas supplies
Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin insisted on Saturday that a written agreement on the deployment of EU monitors to Ukraine must be signed before Russia resumes gas shipments to a freezing Europe.
- Agencies
- Published: 18:13 January 10, 2009
Novo-Ogaryovo, Russia: Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin insisted on Saturday that a written agreement on the deployment of EU monitors to Ukraine must be signed before Russia resumes gas shipments to a freezing Europe.
Putin told Czech Prime Minister Mirek Topolanek that the deal must spell out details of the monitoring team's operation. Topolanek, whose country holds the rotating European Union presidency, met with Putin after holding talks in Ukraine on Friday night.
The EU experts arrived in Ukraine on Friday prepared to monitor the flow of gas and act as referees in a bitter economic battle between the two former Soviet states.
But there were no gas shipments for EU monitors to track on Saturday, as Russian and Ukrainian continued bickering over details of the monitoring pact.
"I hope you will succeed in persuading our Ukrainian partners to sign the documents which would set up a mechanism for transit of our gas across Ukraine," Putin said at his suburban residence outside Moscow at the start of his talks with Topolanek.
The Russian natural gas giant Gazprom halted the shipment of gas intended for Ukraine on January 1 after negotiations over a new gas contract broke down.
Russia then accused Ukraine of siphoning its gas intended for Europe, and finally turned off the taps on all gas shipped through Ukraine on Wednesday, ending or reducing gas supplies to more than a dozen European nations as winter turned bitterly cold across the region.
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