Poll: Over half of Ukrainians think that Russia won gas conflict

Kyiv, February 17 (Interfax-Ukraine)- Some 52.2% of Ukraine's population say that Russia won in the latest gas conflict, which saw Ukraine accepting the switch to European pricing standards, pollsters have said.

Director General of FOM-Ukraine Oleksandr Bukhalov said this was indicated by a poll carried out between February 1 and 11.

The agency polled 2,000 people in 160 towns and cities. The margin of error is under 2.2%, he said.

According to the poll results, only 4.9% of Ukrainians think that Ukraine won in the latest gas dispute, 7.9% think that the real winner was the European Union, some 2.8% name other countries and 32.3% could not give a definite answer.

Some 29.7% of Ukrainians consider President Viktor Yuschenko to be responsible for the gas row between Ukraine and Russia in early 2009, some 20.0% say all the officials are responsible, 12.2% blame Russian PM Vladimir Putin, 11.4% place responsibility on Ukrainian Premier Yulia Tymoshenko, 5.7% consider Russian President Dmitry Medvedev responsible, 4.0% and 3.1% blame Gazprom and Naftogaz Ukrainy, while RosUkrEnergo was mentioned by 2.2%, and some 11.4% could not give a definite answer.

On the whole, some 37.3% of respondents consider Russia to be solely responsible for the gas crisis, 36.4% blamed Ukraine, and 25.7% could not say.