By Vestnik Kavkaza
The Ukrainian side has agreed to prepayment of Russian gas supplies, the Russian Minister of Energy Alexander Novak has said today. New supplies could be provided right after the first payment of the previous gas debt, the Minister stated. The agreements were a result of trilateral talks between Russia, Ukraine and the EU in Berlin on September 26th, when a plan for eliminating risks of transit of Russian gas to Europe in upcoming winter was drawn up.
Meanwhile, Sergey Pikin, the Director of the Energetic Development Foundation, doesn’t feel very optimistic about the agreements reached: “When it is time for the school summer vacations, traditionally the next academic year starts with a repetition of materials which were studied in the last quarter of the previous year. The current process resembles a repetition of the material which was studied in late spring and early summer. If we look carefully, we won’t see anything unique. What was the subject of the talks? What was the big opportunity to agree on? At the moment, the sides have come to an agreement under European pressure, but their points of view are still opposite.”
Pikin suggests that further assessments by the Ukrainian government could change the agreements which were achieved on Friday: “This is a usual thing; and first of all it will touch on payment of debts. If prices have been agreed, and all sides accept them, including the Ukrainian government which stated that these were the prices for top volumes in winter, there are big questions about payment of debts. Of course, it will depend on the elections in Ukraine, as the gas issue is as important today as the events in the southeast of Ukraine. Thus, people who are members of the government, the parliament and those who participated in the talks could interpret the results of them in different ways, considering political goals. So in the very near future we could see a changed scenario of the agreements reached on Friday.”
At the moment the schedule of future supplies of Russian gas to Ukraine is not clear. It is necessary for Gazprom and Naftagas to discuss an additional protocol to the contract which will be signed, according to Novak.
