Russia Pacifies Poland by Promising Peace with Ukraine

Russia and Ukraine have signed a memorandum to settle their natural gas problems, Interfax-Ukraine quotes Russian Prime Minister Mikhail Kasianov as saying.

Now, according to Mr. Kasianov, the two sides are to draw up within ten days the draft intergovernmental agreements regulating, in execution of the memorandum, payment of the Ukrainian debt, new deliveries of Russian gas to Ukraine, and uninterrupted transit of Russian gas to Europe. As was reported, Ukraine and Russia made a deal in Minsk on gas supplies, the transit of Turkmenistan gas across Russian territory, establishing a security reserve to ward off interruptions in the supply of gas from Russia to Europe, and granting Ukraine a seasonal loan of 2 billion cubic meters of gas. The two sides also agreed to include this year’s $700 million Ukrainian gas debt into the overall debt to be rescheduled within eight to eleven years. An agreement on guarantees for the transit of Russian gas to the West is expected to be signed in the nearest future. The Russian newspaper Segodnya believes that Russia not only allows Kyiv to “overtake” 7 billion cu. m. of gas every winter but also refuses to take a fair share in managing the Ukrainian gas transport system because, as a Gazprom source claims, Russia needs to pacify Poland and gain its consent to laying a gas pipeline bypassing Ukraine, only to dictate its conditions thereafter. The newspaper indicates that Ukrainian Premier Viktor Yushchenko’s intention to transfer the gas transport system’s controlling shares in concession to the British-Dutch Shell Company evoked no response from Gazprom.