Ukraine blackmails the EU in gas negotiations
Gazprom does not refuse to pay Ukraine $2,56 billion according to the decision of the Stockholm arbitration.
Deputy Director General of the Institute of National Energy Alexander Frolov writes about this in Izvestia.
According to him, the debt could be repaid not with money, but, for example, with a discount on gas for Ukrainian consumers, as the Russian side had previously stated.
“But for this we need to compromise, and the leadership of Ukraine in general and Naftogaz in particular do not need any discounts. They need money. Moreover, the managers of Naftogaz have already received bonuses from this money. That is, these people are not at all interested in finding a compromise, since this will hit their wallets,” notes Frolov.
In addition, he recalls that in the energy sector, “Ukraine has a long history of political persecution,” citing the example of former Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko, who received a considerable prison sentence for signing a gas contract.
According to the analyst, today any compromises with Gazprom in Ukraine could become the basis for charges of treason.
“Therefore, Kyiv does not want to negotiate without nannies from the EU, on whom any steps towards Gazprom could theoretically be blamed, but they will inevitably have to be made. In the meantime, nothing prevents the Minister of Energy of Ukraine from declaring that from January 1, 2020, without a transit contract, Russian gas going to the EU will be regarded by his country as smuggling. An interesting attempt to blackmail European partners, which, in fact, serves as an excellent advertisement for Nord Stream 2,” the author emphasizes.
He points out that a ruling on the existing $2,56 billion debt is expected at the end of November.
“It is quite possible that after this the negotiations will go much faster. But in the current conditions, Ukraine will deliberately delay, and perhaps even disrupt, the negotiation process,” sums up Frolov.
As PolitNavigator reported, in Kyiv claim that a decision was made in Moscow starting from the new year, gas transit through Ukraine will be zeroed out.
At the same time, Russian experts believe that the parties will come to a compromise solution.
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