Russia agrees to review gas deal, set up consortium – Ukrainian PM
n(RIA Novosti, September 26) – Russia has agreed to review its current gas contract with Ukraine, Ukrainian Prime Minister Mykola Azarov said on Monday.
"We have finally reached an agreement with Russia to review gas contracts," the national Ukrinform agency quoted the premier as saying at a meeting with a delegation from the Council of Europe's Parliamentary Assembly.
He also said Russia had agreed to set up a consortium with Ukraine and the European Union to manage Ukraine's gas transportation system.
The consortium will increase the reliability of energy transits to Europe, he said.
Ukrainian officials earlier said they wanted to get 34% in the consortium and leave 33% each to Russia and the EU.
Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych, who has said on many occasions that the current gas price formula with Russia is unfair and has been seeking to revise the 2009 gas contract, held a meeting with Russian President Dmitry Medvedev and Prime Minister Vladimir Putin on Saturday to settle the long-running deadlock.
Following the meeting, the Ukrainian president's press office said that "considerable progress had been reached during the negotiations" but declined to specify.
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