Russia hikes Ukraine gas price
Print Edition
RUSSIA yesterday sharply hiked the price for natural gas to Ukraine and threatened to reclaim billions previous discounts, raising the heat on its cash-strapped government, while Ukrainian police moved to disarm members of a radical nationalist group after a shooting spree in the capital.
NATO foreign ministers were gathering for a two-day meeting in Brussels to consider further steps in the wake of Russia’s annexation of Crimea, including measures to reassure the Baltic states, Poland and Romania that the alliance would help guarantee their security.
Alexei Miller, the head of Russia’s state-controlled natural gas giant Gazprom, said yesterday that the company has withdrawn December’s discount that put the price of gas at US$268.50 per 1,000 cubic meters and set the price at US$385.50 per 1,000 cubic meters for the second quarter.
The discount was part of a financial lifeline which Russian President Vladimir Putin offered to Ukraine’s President Viktor Yanukovych, after he ditched a pact with the European Union in favor of closer ties with Moscow. The move fueled three months of protests which led Yanukovych to flee to Russia in February.
Putin and other officials have said that Russia has no intention of invading Ukraine. Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu insisted yesterday that the Kremlin wants a “political settlement that would take interests and rights of the entire Ukrainian people into account.”
NATO Secretary General Anders Fogh Rasmussen said he couldn’t confirm reports of a Russian pullback from Ukraine’s borders.
“This is not what we have seen,” he told reporters in Brussels. “And this massive military buildup can in no way contribute to a de-escalation of the situation ... I continue to urge Russia to pull back its troops, live up to its international obligation and engage in a constructive dialogue with Ukraine.”
German Chancellor Angela Merkel told a news conference in Berlin that she could not confirm any withdrawal. Even if Putin had removed some troops, she said, “it is also certainly not the final step... the troop concentration on the Ukrainian border is very high.”
Germany’s Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier, renewed a push for direct talks between Russia and Ukraine amid “small signals of de-escalation.”
Also yesterday, the Russian parliament moved to annul agreements with Ukraine on Russia’s navy base in Crimea. In 2010, Ukraine extended the lease of Russia’s Black Sea Fleet’s base until 2042 for an annual rent of US$98 million and discounts for Russian natural gas.
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