By Vestnik Kavkaza
Last week, Russian President Vladimir Putin addressed leaders of some states where Russian gas is imported from the territory of Ukraine. These are Austria, Bulgaria, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Hungary, Germany, Greece, Italy, Macedonia, Moldova, Poland, Romania, Serbia, Slovakia, Slovenia, Turkey, France, Croatia, and the Czech Republic. According to President, Gazprom will have to take prepayment for gas, and in case of violation of payments it will have to stop gas export partially or completely. It means that it will export as much gas as the Ukrainian side will prepay for.
“Self-distance of our European partners from joint activities on settlement of the Ukrainian economic crisis and consultation with the Russian side leaves no alternative for Russia,” Putin thinks. “There is only one way out: we should hold urgent consultations between ministers of economy, finances, and energy to develop coordinated steps on stabilization of Ukrainian economy and providing Russian gas supplies and transit, according to contract obligations, and begin to make the coordinated steps as soon as possible.”
Germany agrees with Putin. Karl Georg Welman, German MP from the CDU, member of the Foreign Politician Committee of Bundestag, member of the German-Russian Parliamentary Group, is sure that “Gazprom supplies must be paid. We should discuss fair prices for gas, guarantees of market prices, guarantees of certain prices by the EU and Germany.”
According to Welman, “we are all interested in the reliable work of the gas transport system which passes through Ukraine to Europe. The pipes are 40 years old, they should be modernized. After the modernization, we could achieve higher effectiveness of supply. We could save a great amount of fuel gas, which could be sold later, to refinance the investments.”
Welman stands for establishing of the German-Russian-Ukrainian consortium: “All sides are strategically interested in this. Russia has great interest in maintenance of the gas transport system which helps to sell gas to the West. Europe is interested in secure gas supplies through the system. Ukraine is interested in being a transit country. The situation is beneficial for all sides.”
Speaking about economic stabilization in Ukraine, Welman noted: “To stabilize the economy, European, German, Russian, American, and Ukrainian efforts are needed, for people could earn money and improve their living standards. Ukraine has unique technological and industrial potential which could be implemented partially by Russia, speaking about aircraft engineering and aircraft industry.”
