Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev believes that Russian and Ukraine still have a chance to settle their dispute over the gas price in negotiations.

"I believe that an agreement can be reached. It is always possible to sit down at the negotiating table and find some kind of compromise. And if we aren't able to agree, there are in fact several lawsuits at the Stockholm arbitration court. We will meet there," Medvedev said in an interview with Russian television on Wednesday.

Beginning in the 1990s, Russia delivered gas to Ukraine at reduced prices, effectively "gifting" Ukraine more than $80 billion, Medvedev said.

"Everything we've done in recent years is to try and reach agreement with our Ukrainian partners amicably. In recent years we have gifted Ukraine over $80 billion in gas discounts! I have in mind the 1990s and the beginning of this millennium," Medvedev said.

For many years, Russia sold gas to Ukraine at $40-50 per 1,000 cubic meters and "only relatively recently have we moved to civilized methods for determining the price," he said.

"Unfortunately, our Ukrainian partners have not always responded in the same, civilized way. Usually this meant never-ending negotiations, often on the verge of blackmail and very often, unfortunately, this was accompanied by the even more usual, banal theft of gas from [transit] pipelines," he said.

In order to put an end to this situation, Russia shifted to contract relations with Ukraine, both for gas sales and for transmission. "I believe that this is an important achievement," he said.