Reacting to news of the stiff price hike on natural gas inked by Ukraine’s outgoing government, Yulia Tymoshenko, the opposition leader who is poised to return as Ukraine’s prime minister, lambasted the deal and vowed to eliminate middleman companies in negotiating energy deals.
“This is a result of an absolutely brainless policy of setting up RosUkrEnergo as a broker,” the Associated Press reported Tymoshenko as saying on Dec. 4, the day Russian energy giant Gazprom announced stiff price hikes for Ukraine.
“There is no logic here. This is corruption,” she was quoted as saying. “Undoubtedly, if our team comes to power, we will do all we can so that Ukraine and Russia have the opportunity to work without any go-betweens,” she added.
Late on Dec. 4, Gazprom announced Ukraine would pay nearly $180 per 1,000 cubic meters of Russian natural gas beginning next year, a 40 percent increase over current prices.
Nearly all the gas Ukraine uses is imported via Russia from the energy-rich Central Asian nation of Turkmenistan. Some of the gas is also of Uzbek and Kazakh origin. The gas is imported through a Swiss-based trading company, RosUkrEnergo, half of which is owned by Gazprom and half by two Ukrainian businessmen.
RosUkrEnergo spokesman Andrei Knutov said no official documents have been signed, but that was expected to happen in the coming days.
Ukraine’s energy minister said a final deal could be inked on Dec. 5.
The deal comes one week after Gazprom announced it would pay up to 30 percent more beginning next year for natural gas from Turkmenistan, which Gazprom resells to Ukraine.
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