Ukraine should appeal to Stockholm Arbitration Court against amount of gas supplies under contract with Russia, says Bohoslovska
Kyiv, January 16 (Interfax-Ukraine) – Ukraine will not manage to complete the negotiations on the contract for supplies of natural gas before the presidential election in Russia, but it could appeal against a part of it to the Stockholm Arbitration Court, Regions Party parliamentary faction MP and the head of the Verkhovna Rada's ad hoc commission for inquiry into the circumstances of the conclusion of the 2009 gas agreements between Ukraine and Russia, Inna Bohoslovska, has said.
"I think that we don't have any chance to revise these agreements by the end of the election campaign in Russia. Much will change in Russia's policy after the election of [Russian Premier Vladimir] Putin, and I am sure that he will become the next president of Russia," Bohoslovska said during a press conference hosted by Interfax-Ukraine on Monday.
"There is no doubt that the negotiations with Russia should be held in the context of a strategic partnership. But we should realize that if the contract terms are not changed voluntarily, we will have to address Stockholm [Arbitration Court]," she added.
According to her, over the recent year many European companies had appealed in the courts against Gazprom to change the terms of contracts for gas supplies.
"From the very beginning we had non-market contracts with non-market terms. That is why the Ukrainian government has the possibility and the right to address Stockholm," the MP said.
According to her, the first step towards the revision of the Ukraine-Russia contract on gas supplies should be a reconsideration of amounts of gas supplies, and after the presidential election in Russia a revision of the gas contracts in general could be discussed.
"The first [step] today is a lawsuit on the amount of natural gas," Bohoslovska said.
She also said that Ukraine "hoped that Russia would behave as a strategic partner, but that it is acting like a country that strictly follows its own interests."
"That is why it will be very difficult for us to agree on the price [of gas]," Bohoslovska said.
She added that Ukraine, as a member of the European Energy Charter, "could use the provisions of this document, which directly forbid gas producers having controlling stakes in companies that sell gas."
"We lose from $3 billion to $6 billion annually as a result of the signing of the gas contract," she said and added that "in general over three years Ukraine's loss from the gas contracts was about UAH 96 billion."
"One more link in the betrayal of Ukraine's national interests is the fact that [former Ukrainian Premier] Yulia Tymoshenko signed [the contract on obligatory purchase of] 52 billion cubic meters of gas… The take-or-pay formula was signed for purchase of gas, thus Ukraine was forced to its knees… We became slaves of purchases of Russian gas overpriced and in amounts that destroy Ukraine's economy," Bohoslovska said.