With a sore throat

Yulia Tymoshenko broke into Moscow for gas

Today in Moscow, at the White House, a working meeting of the heads of government of Russia and Ukraine is to take place. Yulia Tymoshenko, who has been healing a sore throat since last week, will try to have her say in the sphere of gas relations between the two countries. Until now, President Viktor Yushchenko has managed to keep the initiative in his hands on this sensitive topic for Kiev . But the prime minister’s gas ambitions are no secret to anyone, and therefore it was clear that she did not intend to remain on the sidelines. And Mrs. Tymoshenko did everything to ensure that today’s visit took place, despite attempts by the secretariat of the President of Ukraine to prevent this. However, most likely, she will be greatly disappointed in the White House. The Russian government believes that political agreements were reached on February 12 during a meeting between the presidents of the two countries and they must be implemented. And direct commercial negotiations are within the competence of economic entities - Gazprom and Naftogaz of Ukraine.

A week ago, Vladimir Putin and Viktor Yushchenko in the Kremlin overcame another gas crisis in relations between the two countries. They agreed that Naftogaz would pay off its debts for gas, and would also receive a place in the supply and distribution of imported gas that is currently occupied by Ukrainian entrepreneurs Dmitry Firtash and Ivan Fursin (co-owners of the Swiss trader RosUkrEnergo). It was decided that the fundamental scheme would remain the same: Gazprom would purchase Central Asian gas, sell it to an intermediary, who would deliver it to the border with Ukraine and transfer it to another intermediary, who in turn would sell the fuel on the Ukrainian market. It’s just that Naftogaz should become Gazprom’s partner, not private businessmen. The preservation of intermediate structures was explained by Ukraine’s desire to maintain the price of $179.5 per thousand cubic meters, since Gazprom is ready to carry out direct supplies at European prices ($315).

All this was decided in plain sight, but without the participation of Yulia Tymoshenko, who, even before the formation of the government, set the revision of gas agreements with Russia as one of her main political goals. Viktor Yushchenko first ensured that his meeting with Vladimir Putin would be the first contact at a high state level since the election of a new cabinet in Ukraine. And Ms. Tymoshenko's visit to Moscow was postponed from the end of January to February 21. At the end of last week, it turned out that Viktor Yushchenko unexpectedly decided to come to the informal CIS summit, which will be held in Moscow on February 22, a day earlier. And the secretariat of the Ukrainian president appealed to the prime minister with a request to postpone the trip to Russia so that the two top officials would not be on a business trip abroad at the same time. As a result, Ms. Tymoshenko’s office agreed with her Russian colleagues to postpone the visit, but not to a later date, but a day earlier.

Alexander Gudyma, a deputy from the Yulia Tymoshenko Bloc and adviser to the prime minister on energy issues, told RIA Novosti yesterday that the trip of the head of the Cabinet of Ministers “will take place and, naturally, there will be negotiations.” According to him, yesterday Ms. Tymoshenko was supposed to hold a meeting with the president, at which she planned to clarify “everything that the presidents (Viktor Yushchenko and Vladimir Putin at a meeting in Moscow - Ed. ) talked about.” “Ukraine, through the Prime Minister, will expand the scope of negotiations on such a specific but narrow topic as the price of gas,” Mr. Gudyma promised. But the White House is ready for this. “We do not plan to discuss any new gas initiatives with the Ukrainian side,” a high-ranking source in the Russian government told Vremya Novostei. Another White House source claims that they went to the meeting by agreeing to promptly move the visit up a day. But this does not mean that Moscow is ready to talk about the topics that primarily concern Ms. Tymoshenko.

Vremya Novostei's source at Naftogaz reported that the prime minister's delegation will also include the head of the company, Oleg Dubina, who will join Ms. Tymoshenko in Moscow. The day before, the chairman of the board of the state concern, fulfilling the instructions of the government and the National Security and Defense Council, visited Ashgabat. He was tasked with starting negotiations on direct purchases of Central Asian gas. Mr. Dubina met with President Gurbanguly Berdimuhamedov, but they did not talk about gas supplies, but about the shortcomings of Ukrainian contractors at construction sites in Turkmenistan. Obviously, the head of Naftogaz did not receive any guarantees, and Turkmen arguments are unlikely to help Yulia Tymoshenko in her conversation with Viktor Zubkov.

Meanwhile, today the first meetings of two working groups, which were formed after reaching the Kremlin agreements, are to take place at Gazprom. The groups must agree on the details of debt repayment and the transition to a new order of gas relations. Until now, Gazprom and Naftogaz have only exchanged mutually unacceptable draft cooperation agreements. It is characteristic that the negotiations will take place in the absence of Gazprom head Alexei Miller, who is in Bishkek today.

Vera KUZNETSOVA, Alexey GRIVACHS