Press Statement Following the International Conference of Heads of State and Government on Ensuring Russian Gas Supplies to European Consumers.Part 2
January 17, 2009
The Kremlin,Moscow
Пресс-конференция по итогам Международной конференции глав государств и правительств по вопросу обеспечения доставки российского газа потребителям в Европе
17 января 2009 года.
Москва,Кремль
It is an important question and we will give it a serious answer: we would like this to happen as quickly as possible, literally in the next few days. Why? Because it has already created big problems for a number of states, our partners, and a considerable number of people. As for suggestions, I can tell you frankly that both the Russian and Ukrainian parties made some suggestions during the discussion. I will name them to you. In any case, I believe that some of these proposals can be used to achieve a final agreement.
What does this mean? In order to finalise an agreement on the resumption of deliveries and the operation of Ukraine's gas export system we need to agree on proper controls. So that there is no unauthorised siphoning, or what we are now more rigorously calling the wrongful appropriation of gas, a system that determines how to pay, how to calculate what should be paid, and what technological regime will be maintained in the pipline.
As I have already said, we made a proposal several days ago this issue was discussed in the government cabinet among other places. It is that part of the gas Ukraine needs to fully operate its gas transportation system be acquired by an international consortium of companies these companies would own that gas, the gas would be put into the pipeline system and, accordingly, the system would become functional. This is one of the proposals.
The second proposal, which will no doubt be subject to review, involves granting a credit to the Ukrainian side so that it will be able to pay for the gas that it needs today. Incidentally, our Ukrainian partners have just expressed their intention to pay up front for a whole bunch of things. Well, this is good, we can only welcome such a position. Now we need to work on some of the finer points concerning more specific details.
There is another idea that has been put forward that I find very interesting. This idea was raised during my conversation with Ukrainian President Viktor Andreyevich Yushchenko. It would involve a state guarantee for Russian gas suppliers that would last for a certain period of time. This sort of government guarantee is a complex instrument in technical terms, but today during the discussion at this meeting something simpler was suggested, namely an irrevocable letter of credit issued by a major bank in a European country, with partial coverage that the Ukrainian side could provide. If the bank issued such a letter without such coverage, that would be very good. The reason for claiming the money from the letter of credit would be the claim of unauthorised gas siphoning sent in by the Russian company, the supplier of gas, and would be confirmed by the group of observers that we have put together with the participation of the European Union. Bearing in mind that our Ukrainian partners have once again today confirmed that they have no intention of siphoning off gas, we hope that if such a letter of credit was to be issued no payment would ever have to be made on it. This letter of credit would simply work to defend the short term interests of the Russian Federation, until we can come to some sort of agreement with Ukraine on the conditions of supply of gas for Ukrainian consumers, because that is a separate issue.
By the way, I would like to say that in her speech the Prime Minister of Ukraine specifically stated that Ukrainians are fully committed to the transit of gas to Europe and to the agreement on gas deliveries to the territory of Ukraine for Ukrainian consumers, and that they believe that their first priority is to transport gas to European consumers. We hope that this statement will prove to be a guide to action. Here perhaps is what we can say now.
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Приветствую.Уже договорились о цене газа для Украины.Тимошенко новый президент Украины.:)
niknikolay 3 years ago