Miller: No "New Year Present" of a Gas Deal with Ukraine This Year

Gazprom's Alexey Miller has said that there will be no "New Year presents" of a gas deal with Ukraine, despite saying earlier this month that gas talks were progressing well.

Speaking to reporters last night, Mr. Miller said that the deal would not be completed by the end of 2011.

"There will be no New Year presents," Mr. Miller told the reporters after a meeting with Ukrainian Energy and Coal Industry Minister Yury Boiko. A statement released by the company following the meeting also did not contain any details of when a deal could be expected to be struck.

Ukraine has been involved with discussions with Gazprom for several months in a bid to drive current gas prices from the company down.

Former chief spokesperson for Ukrainian gas company Naftogaz, Valentyn Zemliansky told Ukrainian television channel Chanel 5 last night that Mr. Miller's comments were nothing more than a "political game".

"This is just political games. With elections coming up, Russia can't say it has made concessions to Ukraine. There has to be a little victory," the news agency Interfax reports him as saying.