WARSAW, Poland -- Minutes before a 6 p.m. deadline on Feb. 12, Ukrainian President Viktor Yushchenko and Russian President Vladimir Putin resolved the latest dispute between the two countries over natural gas debts -- averting a shutoff of supplies to Ukraine. Russia and Ukraine now have the opportunity to create a more transparent and direct system of energy trading. What are the implications of this latest dispute for EU-Russian energy relations? On Feb. 7, Gazprom had presented Ukraine with an ultimatum -- pay a past due bill of $1.5 billion, or Russian gas supplies would be cut off. As part of the deal to avoid the cutoff, Gazprom CEO Aleksei Miller announced Feb. 12 that his company and Ukraine's state-owned Naftohaz Ukrainy would dismantle an opaque system of gas intermediaries and set up two joint ventures with equal participation to supply energy directly to Ukraine. During their meeting, Putin promised Yushchenko that current price structures would be preserved. Ukraine is expected to begin repaying debts to the Russian energy giant immediately. Third in a Series
Russia-Ukraine ‘Gas War III’ Ends in a Truce, but What Next?
