Oral agreement on Gazprom officials gas monitoring is reached, but Russia wants to ink a deal, meanwhile Ukraine has offered Bulgaria and Moldova gas from its own reserves
Mirek Topolanek, the Czech prime minister, who has arrived in Russia after a visit to Ukraine, said an agreement had been reached with Kiev, under which representatives of Russian energy giant Gazprom will monitor transit operations on Ukrainian territory, while Ukraine's Naftogaz will assign its experts to Russia.
Russian PM Vladimir Putin insisted that the Czech PM would persuade Ukrainian politicians to sign the documents "to create mechanisms of control."
Meanwhile, Ukraine's president has promised to start providing 2 million cubic meters of natural gas daily to Bulgaria and Moldova from its own reserves.
In his letters to the countries' presidents, Viktor Yushchenko proposed settling up after Russia resumes gas deliveries to Europe.
Bohdan Sokolovsky, the Ukrainian president's international energy security envoy, said Ukraine has already started delivering gas to Moldova and is preparing supplies to Bulgaria.
As it can be seen both parties of the gas conflict are in search of methods of influencing the situation and the attitudes of its European partners.
Author:
Ksenia Kochneva
