MOSCOW, May 26 (RIA Novosti) - The Ukrainian cabinet on Monday instructed state oil and gas company Naftogaz and the Ukrainian Energy Ministry to hire top lawyers to defend their interests in their dispute with Russian gas giant Gazprom.
The cabinet said in a decree that Naftogaz and the Energy Ministry should "take measures to hire qualified and highly professional legal advisors to ensure that the rights and interests of Ukraine are defended during the settlement of the dispute between Naftogaz of Ukraine and Gazprom."
Naftogaz Board Chairman Andrei Kobolev said early this month that the company is ready to take Gazprom to court in Stockholm if Russia does not agree to revise the contract price for natural gas deliveries, a move supported by Ukraine's interim Prime Minister Arseniy Yatseniuk, who has also voiced plans to sue Gazprom.
Gazprom CEO Alexey Miller later said that even if Naftogaz appeals for a legal review of gas prices, it will not solve the non-payment problems, as the reason for the current situation is rooted in the state of Ukraine's economy. Miller said the root cause of Ukraine's gas debt lies with the low solvency of Ukrainian consumers and sharply deteriorating payment discipline.
Ukraine's debt for Russian gas deliveries reached $3.5 billion as of the end of April as Kiev continues to reject the new price of $485 per thousand cubic meters of Russian gas. The new price has been in place since April, when Russia cancelled two major discounts for Ukraine. One of them was scrapped because Ukraine failed to timely pay for gas deliveries.
Responding to Kiev's unwillingness to pay for gas, Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev said that Ukraine must pay all its debts for Russian gas supplies without any preconditions, but the payment schedule could be negotiated.
Russia announced a switch to a prepayment scheme, in full accordance with the countries' 2009 energy contract. Following the decision, Gazprom prepared an advance bill for Ukraine's Naftogaz for June deliveries, with supplies to be suspended starting June 3 if the debt is not repaid.
