MOSCOW, April 11 (RIA Novosti) - Moscow doubts the results of discussing gas cooperation with Kiev during the upcoming multilateral talks, Russian Presidential Press Secretary Dmitry Peskov said on Friday.
“It’s possible to discuss the gas issue with the USA, but unpromising because there is no topic of discussion. It’s possible to discuss [the issue] with the EU, but again this discussion will be defective without the participation of the contracting countries because Brussels isn’t one of the parties in the contracts,” Peskov said.
Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said Wednesday it would be senseless to focus the upcoming talks of Russia, the EU, the US and Europe about on reducing the price of Russian gas supplies to Kiev.
In the first quarter, Ukraine was to pay $268.50 per 1,000 cubic meters for Russia’s gas deliveries under a December agreement with Moscow. Russia cancelled the discount starting on April 1, bringing the gas price up to $385.50, because Kiev failed to pay for ongoing deliveries in time, in violation of the agreement.
Gazprom raised the price to $485.50 on April 3 after it revoked an earlier discount dating to 2010, which was granted to Kiev in return for an extension on the lease of the Black Sea Fleet base in Crimea, now Russian territory.
Ukraine has since been wooing Gazprom to return to December prices of $268.5 per 1,000 cubic meters.
