Russia’s Gazprom scraps gas price rebate for Ukraine, offers loan to pay bills
Ukraine was unable to pay its gas bill for February and owed Gazprom $1.5 billion (1.09 billion euros) for earlier gas supplies, Russia's state-controlled natural gas producer Gazprom announced Tuesday.
Therefore, Gazprom would cancel a contract that had granted the government in Kyiv a 30-percent discount on market prices for gas, currently standing at $400 per 1,000 cubic meters, Gazprom Chief Executive Alexei Miller said.
The measure will come into effect as of April 1, and was described by Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev as a logic step in view of Ukraine's failure to pay its bills.
If Ukraine was unable to pay for the goods it was receiving, it must bear the consequences, Medvedev told Russian new agency Interfax following a meeting with the Gazprom CEO.
Gazprom's decision comes in the wake of the overthrow of Ukraine's pro-Russian president Yanukovych by anti-government demonstrators at the end of February. Russian President Vladimir Putin has described the overthrow as an unconstitutional coup. In December, Putin offered Yanukovych the gas rebate and a $15-billion bailout in response to his decision to ditch a trade pact with the European Union.
On Tuesday, Gazprom CEO Alexei Miller also said he was offering Ukraine a loan worth between $2 billion and $3 billion to cover its arrears with the company.
http://www.dw.de/russias-gazprom-scraps-gas-price-rebate-for-ukraine-offers-loan-to-pay-bills/a-17472357
