Natural Gas Problem No Longer Exists, Presidents Are Convinced

While Leonid Kuchma was visiting Russia ending on December 22 in St. Petersburg everything was staged to show that Russia was not interested in any further confrontation with Ukraine. On the one hand, the President of Ukraine was given an extremely warm welcome, and the two presidents unveiled a Taras Shevchenko monument in Petersburg, opened the Northwest Thermal Power Plant, and marked together the eightieth anniversary of the GOELRO plan of bringing electricity to the Soviet Union Russian President Vladimir Putin said at a meeting of businesspeople, the very fact of the Minsk gas problem settlement deal has radically changed both bilateral relations and the attitude of their European partners toward both countries.

According to Pres. Kuchma, the gas problems have been solved almost completely. Interfax quotes the Russian president as saying that now some Ukrainian-Russian agreements on gas cooperation are going to be signed before the end of the year or perhaps in the next few days as a continuation of the Minsk deals. Incidentally, the two countries’ governments had pledged to sign the latter well before the summit.

Mr. Putin also added that Russia would not only develop Ukraine’s pipeline system but also look for opportunities to build new systems. According to him, this does not at all mean that the Ukrainian system will not be used. This is, Mr. Putin thinks, a question of not only reconstruction but also expansion. Thus the problem seems to have been defused thanks to the meeting of the presidents. Mr. Kuchma promised Ukraine would never allow itself to be accused of uncivilized conduct in Russia or Europe. In his turn, Mr. Putin said that both countries can enter European markets as partners: Russia will supply natural gas and Ukraine will ensure its transit; the two countries should not lose their cooperation potential and the world’s leading positions in nuclear energy, metallurgy, and exploring space. Both presidents admitted that the intergovernmental commission is working ineffectively and Mr. Kuchma stated that, given its greater effectiveness, many problems could be solved even without the presidents’ intervention. But problems still seem to exist.

Obviously, Kyiv will also study the Russian proposal to set up multinational and international economic associations. For the time being, Mr. Kuchma noted the activity of Russian capital in the Ukrainian privatization process and stressed that Ukraine is interested in strategic investors. This means some changes are visible. All we have to do is wait for the results.