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Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin warned Thursday of the risk of a new gas crisis with Ukraine and Europe, saying he was “extremely worried” about a raid on the Ukrainian state gas company in Kiev.
A January dispute between Russia and Ukraine resulted in the cutting of Russian gas supplies to Europe for almost two weeks, triggering the European Union’s worst ever energy crisis.
Armed Ukrainian security service agents on Wednesday burst into the headquarters of the Ukrainian state gas firm Naftogaz to conduct a search, in a dramatic display of the country’s internal tensions.
Putin said that “we can only be extremely worried about the possible consequences” of the raid.
“Once again the question has been raised about the reliability of this country (Ukraine),” he added.
The raid came as Russia set a March 8 deadline for payment by Ukraine of a 360 million dollar debt for February.
As Putin warned that failure to pay would lead to a halt in supplies to Ukraine and possibly European consumers, there was an immediate response from Naftogaz.
By the end of business hours Naftogaz said it had paid the February debt in full.
Naftogaz spokesman Ilya Savin said Naftogaz on Thursday paid the final 50 million dollars outstanding after it paid 310 million dollars earlier this week to Russian energy giant Gazprom.
Gazprom confirmed in a statement that “Naftogaz has entirely paid for gas deliveries in February.”
The January dispute was eventually resolved with an agreement signed after talks in Moscow between Putin and Ukrainian Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko, a pro-Western figure who nonetheless has good relations with Russia.
Her domestic rival — President Viktor Yushchenko who is targeting EU and NATO membership for his country — is despised by Russia for his support of Georgia in its August war with Moscow.
