Gazprom deal: more profit for Russia, at less cost for Ukrainian consumers?

摘要

RUSSIA'S GAZPROM seems to have achieved the impossible: a gas deal that means more profit for the company and less cost for Ukrainian consumers. However, the picture is not clear cut. A purported text of the agreement, signed on 19 January by Gazprom and Naftogas Ukrainy, has been released to the press in Kiev, but Gazprom officials refuse to answer questions about the terms of the new contract. Denis Ignatiev, the spokesman for the company's foreign relations, told FERTILIZER WEEK he cannot add comment or clarification to the official Gazprom statement, released at the time of the contract signing in Moscow, in front of Prime Ministers Vladimir Putin and Yulia Tymoshenko.