Russia and Ukraine will not be able to reach an agreement on the gas transit if Kiev continues demanding payments per an international arbitration body's decisions, Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev said on Saturday
MOSCOW (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 07th December, 2019) Russia and Ukraine will not be able to reach an agreement on the gas transit if Kiev continues demanding payments per an international arbitration body's decisions, Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev said on Saturday.
In February 2018, the Arbitration Institute of the Stockholm Chamber of Commerce ordered Russian state-owned Gazprom gas company to pay $2.56 billion to its Ukrainian counterpart, Naftogaz.
"You cannot agree on gas and say at the same time: 'you know what, you will pay us money per some kind of court orders.' That is why, whether they want it or not, it is obvious that in this case, we have to reach some kind of zero option," Medvedev told Vesti v Subbotu tv program broadcast on Rossiya 1 channel on Saturday.
The agreement on gas transit reached by Russian President Vladimir Putin and then-Ukrainian Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko in 2009 is set to expire on December 31, creating uncertainty regarding the future of this transit route. In October, during trilateral consultations with Ukraine and the European Union, Russia argued for a package deal, including the legal disputes and the gas transit, although no significant progress was achieved in that front. Russian and Ukraine are currently engaged in negotiations on the issue.
