Former Ukrainian prime minister Yulia Tymoshenko has unveiled an agreement on purchasing by the Ukrainian state gas company Naftogaz of 11 billion cubic meters of gas from the Russian energy giant Gazprom, a Russian respected daily said on Friday.
Kommersant said, according to the agreement, Gazprom purchased the gas from Naftogaz in early 2009 for a total of $1.7 billion, and then the same day sold it back to Naftogaz at the same price.
This amount of gas plus fines are being demanded from Ukraine by Swiss-registered gas trader RosUkrEnergo (RUE), co-owned by Ukrainian billionaire Dmytro Firtash and Russian gas giant Gazprom.
The trader said that the gas was illegally confiscated from the company. One of the owners of the company, Firtash's Centragas, filed a lawsuit with the Stockholm arbitration court against the Ukrainian government.
The court ruled Naftogaz has to return gas to RUE with an additional penalty of another 1.1 billion cubic meters of gas and $200 million.
On Thursday, the former head of Ukraine's State Customs Service and Tymoshenko's ally, Anatoly Makarenko, was taken into custody for two months while authorities investigate his role in confiscating natural gas from RosUkrEnergo in February 2009.
Makarenko is suspected of playing a role in the illegal confiscation of natural gas from RUE.
Lawyers said that the deal was legitimate, despite its artificialness, and no claims can be made against Gazprom.
MOSCOW, June 25 (RIA Novosti)
