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Moscow postpones talks with Kiev over snub
Mar 24, 2009, 12:27 GMT
Moscow - Russia, angered at being left out of a gas transit deal between Kiev and the European Union this week, on Tuesday indefinitely postponed inter-governmental gas talks with Ukraine.
President Dmitry Medvedev made the announcement at a meeting of the country's security council one day after the European Commission signed a memorandum pledging to invest in developing Ukraine's gas pipeline system.
'We had planned to hold inter-governmental consultations at the prime minister's level next week. But we need to postpone them to until we clarify this issue,' Medvedev said in televised statements.
The document raises a number of questions, Medvedev said, while Prime Minister Vladimir Putin added that it must be 'scrutinized' by Russian experts.
'The gas can't come anywhere but from Russia,' Putin said at the meeting of senior officials. 'But no one has consulted us on this issue.'
Putin had already issued a sharp reprimand Monday evening, warning Russia would be forced to 'review' its ties with the EU if Moscow was sidelined from consultations.
Over 80 per cent of Russian gas supplies to the European Union are shipped through Ukraine's pipeline network.
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