President Viktor Yushchenko on Thursday fired the head of the state company Naftogaz of Ukraine Yuriy Boyko, the Vremya Novostey newspaper wrote on Friday.

Yuri Boyko, writes Vremya Novostei, was considered by Russia as a technical guarantor of stable transit of energy resources to European countries through the territory of Ukraine. In October 2004, the head of Gazprom, Alexey Miller, and Yuri Boyko signed an agreement on the International Gas Consortium, involving the construction of the Bogorodchany-Uzhgorod gas pipeline. After completion of the gas pipeline, the bulk of the transit of Russian gas to Europe will pass through it.

“His departure is, in a sense, a loss for Russia,” said Vadim Karasev, head of the Ukrainian Institute of Global Strategies. “His proximity to the Russian oil and gas elite made it possible to resolve many issues at the level of personal relations. And the Turkmen side, which is one of the main gas suppliers in Ukraine, I knew him well."

Alexey Ivchenko, who headed the subcommittee for legislative support of law enforcement activities in the Verkhovna Rada, was appointed as the new head of Naftogaz of Ukraine. In the 90s, Ivanchenko was one of the leaders of Intergaz, the structure of the ex-head of Naftogaz, Igor Bakai.

According to the head of the Ukrainian Institute of National State Studies, Mikhail Ratushny, the change in the leadership of Naftogaz of Ukraine will not have negative consequences on the situation with the supply and transit of Russian energy resources. “If the Russian Federation pursues a policy of good neighborly relations, then there can be no problems in the fuel and energy sector,” he believes. “Moreover, Ivchenko himself never had a reputation as a radical.”

Yushchenko fired the head of Naftogaz of Ukraine