Russian gas supplies to Europe

Russia may cut gas supplies to Europe in case of reversed deliveries to Ukraine - Putin

Russia is ready to reduce its gas supplies to Europe in the event of unlawful reverse gas flow deals with Ukraine, Russian President Vladimir Putin said Friday.

Voice of Russia

7 June, 2014

"If we see that anyone [in Europe] is violating our gas supply contracts, then we will reduce the amounts [of gas], and then the de-facto quantity of gas on the European market will simply not be sufficient," the Russian president said, highlighting the high risk of non-payment (by Ukraine) as the second problem.

Last month, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said Russia had no complaints against Slovakia in regard to preparing to reverse gas deliveries back to Ukraine saying, "The way Slovak governing bodies are dealing with it does not violate any agreements with "Gazprom" or the Russian government"

Currently Kiev owes Russia about $1.5 billion for November-December deliveries which sold at the old price of $268 per 1,000 cubic meters.

Russia has not received any payments for April-May deliveries at the current price of $485 per 1,000 cubic meters estimated at $3 billion.

Kiev has recently paid Gazprom $786.4 million for gas deliveries in February and March, which, according to Ukrainian Energy Minister Yuriy Prodan, constituted the only undisputed arrears.