President Dmitry Medvedev told the federal government last night not to apply the gas transit protocol signed by Ukraine until the Ukrainian side retrieves its reservations to it. The protocol concerns international monitoring of the flow of Russian gas across Ukraine to Europe.
"These reservations are an insult to common sense and a breach of earlier agreements. They are aimed at derailing the existing transit control agreements and are clearly provocative and destructive in nature," Mr Medvedev said as he met with Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov.
Mr Lavrov told the President that the document handed to the Russian representative in the European Union "had a Ukrainian signature all right, but there was a note attached to it saying that the document has a rider in the form of a declaration." According to Mr Lavrov, although no text of the declaration was actually attached, it was already circulating in the media, and the Russian side was able to read it. "The declaration makes surprising reading, partly because it is 50% downright lies, namely that Ukraine has not siphoned gas, or that Russia's transited gas all reached Europe, and partly because it consists 50% of provisions running counter to the document we signed with the European Union," Mr Lavrov said.
Any additions to the transit protocol signed in Moscow by Russia and the EU that are not agreed upon with Russia are unacceptable, Mr Putin said in a telephone conversation with European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso, RIA Novosti reported.
As the Russian government's press-service said, Mr Barroso took the initiative and talked with Mr Putin by telephone tonight. The document, Mr Putin said, must be signed by all parties without reservations. He stressed that the Ukrainian provision is, first, a total departure from the protocol, and, second, has no relation to the transit of Russian gas via Ukraine to European consumers and concerns only the commercial relations between Gazprom and Naftogaz of Ukraine.
Moscow edition