Deputy Chair of the Russian State Duma and President of the Russian Gas Society Valeriy Yazev said he is convinced that no matter who is in power in Ukraine, Russia should continue its work to diversify its gas delivery routes to Europe. “We welcome Viktor Yanukovych’s arrival in power, we like him. That is the choice of the Ukrainian people…But there are systemic things which concern transport and they have not been resolved whether Viktor Yushchenko, Yuliya Tymoshenko or Viktor Yanukovych have been in power”, he said. He stressed that Ukraine still has a monopoly on pumping Russian gas.
Yazev also pointed out that Russia pumps up to 140 billion cubic meters of gas, or 80 percent of the overall volume pumped to Europe, through Ukraine and noted there is no real alternative to the Ukrainian gas transport system. Yazev said that the Yamal-West Europe pipeline through Belarus can pump up to 30 billion cubic meters of gas per year and that the Blue Stream pipeline will handle 16 billion cubic meters per year.
“A systemic monopoly remains and the complicated social situation in Ukraine is also still there, and European prices for them are a burden given their consumption. It is very difficult for them to pay full prices”, the deputy speaker of the Duma said. He noted this is also affected by the lack of international legal mechanisms for regulating transit. “We cannot easily say that with Yanukovych in power that all the problems have ended”, he said.
