Tuesday
25 november 2008
21:14
Gazprom to gain little by taking Ukraine to court, says Volodymyr Saprykin
Threats of taking Ukraine to court continue to emanate from Moscow because of its alleged gas debts to Russia. In a tactical sense, it is quite possible that Gazprom will file a case against Ukraine, but it will take the court several months to resolve it. Moreover, the existing gas-supply contract may not have a provision enabling the parties to appeal for international arbitration. It is clear also that Gazprom wants to keep the conflict in the family, Volodymyr Saprykin, director of energy programs at the Razumkov think tank in Kyiv told ZIK Nov. 25.According to him, Naftohaz Ukrayiny has no debt to Gazprom as there are no direct transactions between them. In other words, there is no direct debt of Ukraine to Russia. There is only the debt of middleman RosUkrEnergo to Gazprom.
“Unfortunately, there were no comments either by Gazprom or by Naftohaz Ukrayiny on the debt structure. Meanwhile, the difference in debt estimation given by Russia and Ukraine officials amounts to over one billion dollars. We can merely guess at how the difference came up,” V. Saprykin said.
The expert told that RosUkrEnergo has claimed its debt for the current month ahead of schedule. November debt must be repaid on Dec. 25, so RosUkrEnergo has declared Ukraine’s November debt too early. Besides, RosUkrEnergo has imposed sanctions for allegedly belated payments for gas. This explains the difference. Perhaps, there are other details of which we are not aware,” the expert hinted.
It goes without saying that Ukraine must pay for the gas it consumed. Naftohaz must immediately pay for the undisputed part of gas. This will open the way to further cooperation with Russia and the signing of supply contracts for 2009. As for the disputed part of the debt, it should be analyzed by experts and this is a standard procedure, Saprykin added.
Comment by ZIK
Russia President Dmitrij Medvedev did not rule out collecting Ukraine’s gas debt in court. He made this statement in Lima, Peru, where he was attending the Asian Pacific Economic Summit.In a related move, last week Medvedev instructed Gazprom chairman Miller to collect Ukraine’s $2.4 billion debt for gas.
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