The question of Western participants and Ukrainian management of the consortium is still open

Deputy CEO of the Gazprom Corporation Aleksandr Riazanov announced last Wednesday that Russia has formed all the management bodies, including the oversight council of the Ukrainian-Russian natural gas transport consortium for managing Ukraine’s gas mains. Earlier the Gazprom Border of Directors approved the deal on purchasing a share in the Russian- Ukrainian consortium.

“The oversight council [of the consortium] consists of six persons: three from the Russian and Ukrainian sides each, including one representative from each country’s government,” Mr. Riazanov stated. According to him, from the Russian side Vice Premier Viktor Khristenko will take part in the council, and from Ukrainian side — First Vice Premier Oleh Dubyna. “Our director of the Marketing Department Mr. Selezniov also is member of the council,” the Gazprom deputy head announced. He also named another member, Ukrainian Minister of Finance Ihor Yushko. “We, for our part, recommended Gazprom representative in Kyiv Anatoly Tsymbal as a member of the directorate (consisting of two directors possessing equal rights),” Mr. Riazanov said. He also mentioned that the consortium has an auditing committee including one representative of Gazprom and two from the Ukrainian side.

It was probably not by accident that in Hamburg Mr. Riazanov did not fail to specify that at present the consortium is already formed on a parity basis and does not include any foreign participants. Simultaneously, the Gazprom deputy head told Interfax that the Ukrainian side opposes inviting foreign participants, while the Russian is of the contrary opinion.

Perhaps the new impetus to the talks about creating a Ukrainian-Russian gas transport consortium was given by Ukrainian president’s visit to Moscow the Saturday before last. On the eve of his meeting with his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin, President Kuchma stated that the problem of creating the consortium, which had aroused a negative reaction from a number of Ukrainian politicians at the initial stage, is now “easier to solve.” “Now it’s easier for me because Viktor Yushchenko [head of the Our Ukraine bloc] has supported this idea,” said Leonid Kuchma. Simultaneously, in contrast to Mr. Riazanov, he stressed that from the very beginning it was envisaged that the consortium includes at least three parts: Ukraine, Russia, and European Union member states. Pres. Kuchma recalled that first European leader to sign a declaration on creating this consortium was Federal Chancellor of Germany Gerhard Schroeder, who opined that in the future other EU countries would be involved.

Meanwhile, the well-known declaration by German Ambassador to Kyiv Dietmar Studemann mentions possible problems in this direction. Commenting on Ukraine and Russia creating a limited liability company aimed on defining a technical-economical substantiation for creating the consortium, Ambassador St Я demann remarked that Germany, being a third party, “metaphorically speaking, will not sit down at the table where the two others have already finished their dinner.”