President of Ukraine Victor Yushchenko calls upon not to politicize the gas negotiations with Russian Federation. In response to journalists’ questions, Yushchenko noted that “the economic answer” in these negotiations would be found in any case.
“It is important that neither Ukrainian nor Russian side allows the politicization of this issue, that the formations of new market conditions won’t be used as a form of political pressure,” declared Yushchenko.
The President is sure that the sides will achieve “mutual economic interests” in negotiations and that the gas issue will become a “yesterday’s question” in several weeks.
Yushchenko refused to go deep into technical details of the negotiations in progress and asked “to give our experts some time for an answer.”
“The gas-transport system needs modernization to provide Europe with guarantee of transit for future tens of years. That’s why the issue of transit cost is very important for us now. We are conducting negotiations concerning transit rate for Russia on the one hand and concerning gas price for Ukraine on the other hand. Ukrainian side proceeds from the assumption that gas price and transit are paired categories. We can follow the general conception of market liberalization using step-by-step decisions,” said Yushchenko, having noted that Russia’s payment for transit would be transferred to purchase of Russian gas at the new price.
