Putin warns Europe on gas transit halt

PanARMENIAN.Net - Russian gas supplies to Europe through Ukraine could come to a grinding halt soon due to crisis-ridden Kiev's payment arrears, Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin warned on Wednesday.



"This could happen in late June or early July - a full stop to our transit across Ukraine," Putin told a press conference in Helsinki.



"No one in Russia is taking pleasure or gloating at Ukraine's difficulties in paying for the product it receives from us. But it must pay," the powerful Russian prime minister told reporters.

Speaking during a visit to EU member Finland, Putin complained that Europe had rebuffed Russian requests to help Ukraine pay for its gas needs.



"We are proposing to solve the problem with the European Commission. But our efforts to approach the commission about this have not been successful. There is only one answer (from them) - we have no money for Ukraine," Putin said.



Under the contract that governs Russian gas deliveries to Ukraine, Russian state energy giant Gazprom has the right to start demanding pre-payment from Kiev if any payments do not arrive on time, Putin said.



After that, if Ukraine misses the deadline for one of its advance payments, Russia will cut off the gas to its southern neighbor, he said.



In recent weeks Russia has warned repeatedly that crisis-battered Ukraine would have difficulties paying its gas bills, but Kiev has denied the claims and insisted that it has the funds.



Again on Wednesday, Ukraine said it will pay Russia what it owes for May gas deliveries.

"We have 500 million dollars left to pay. We still have time before June 7 and I think we will find the money," the country's energy minister, Yuri Prodan, was quoted by news agency Interfax as saying.



He shrugged off Putin's threat, saying: "Ukraine has always paid on time and I think this will be the case in the future."



Putin on Wednesday also urged Finland to approve the Nord Stream undersea gas pipeline, which would deliver energy to Europe while bypassing Ukraine.



The multibillion-dollar project is strongly backed by Russia and Germany but still needs approval from Finland, Sweden and Denmark as the proposed pipeline would pass near their Baltic Sea coastlines.



"I do not see a single reason why we would not receive permission to lay this pipeline system in the Finnish economic zone, especially since it in no way harms the interests of Finland," Putin said.

However, Putin stressed that Finland was entitled to make its own decision, speaking in a press conference in Helsinki alongside his Finnish counterpart Matti Vanhanen.



"Undoubtedly, this is a sovereign decision for Finland ... We will respect any decision," he said.

The 1,220-kilometre (760-mile) pipeline would run under the Baltic Sea from the Russian port city of Vyborg to Greifswald, in northern Germany.



Ukraine needs some 500 million dollars (350 million euros) per month through October to store the gas it needs for winter, Putin said, adding that without the stored gas Kiev would be "forced" to siphon off gas bound for Europe.



Russia accused Ukraine of stealing Europe-bound gas during the January gas crisis, which raised doubts within the European Union about Moscow's reliability as an energy supplier. In that crisis, more than a dozen European countries were left without Russian gas in the middle of winter as a result of a bitter price dispute between Moscow and Kiev.



The EU gets about a quarter of its gas supplies from Russia. Around 80 percent of those supplies pass through Ukraine, AFP reported.