Russia has indefinitely postponed intergovernmental consultation with Ukraine due to the EU-Ukrainian declaration on gas transportation system, President Dmitry Medvedev said Tuesday.
"Originally there were plans for a special commission with Ukraine, but now there has been the conference between Ukraine and the European Union on investments into Ukraine's gas transportation system," the Itar-Tass news agency quoted Medvedev as saying when he addressed a national Security Council meeting.
In a declaration signed on Monday between Ukraine, the European Commission and three financial institutions, Kiev pledged to carry out reforms to ensure the sustainability, reliability, efficiency and transparency of its gas transit system, including the independence of the gas transit operators.
"The declaration's contents arouse at least a number of questions," Medvedev said.
"Inter-government consultations by the heads of government are scheduled for next week," he said. "In order to decide what the consequences of the declaration's adoption may be I suggest giving thought to postponing the consultations for a while to look into the decisions that have been made."
Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin backed the president's proposal, agreeing that it was necessary "to think what consequences will this situation bear," local media reported.
"We have a number of questions. The key factor of Ukraine's gas transportation system development is volumes of gas pumping," Putin was quoted by the Interfax news agency as saying.
"This is linked to the need to payback loans, but there is no other place but Russia from which gas may be taken," he added.
On Monday, Putin threatened to reconsider Russia's relations with EU, if Moscow's interests were ignored.
(Xinhua News Agency March 24, 2009)