Bloomberg: Ukraine Must Show Will to Pay Before Gas Talks, Medvedev Says

Ukraine should settle a substantial part of its natural-gas debt and set a payment schedule before Russia will start price negotiations amid a dispute that may affect Europe, according to Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev.

“It should be a substantial sum that would clearly indicate their intention to pay their debts,” Medvedev said yesterday in an interview with Bloomberg Television at his residence outside Moscow. “It can’t be 3 percent.”

Ukraine depends on its neighbor for about half of its gas and is a key transit route for supplies to the European Union, increasing the stakes in Russia’s worst standoff with the U.S. and the EU since the Cold War. The allies have accused Russian leader Vladimir Putin of stoking unrest in Ukraine’s easternmost regions before a May 25 presidential election, a claim he has denied.
MORE