MOSCOW, Aug 12 (PRIME) — Russian President Dmitry Medvedev has called on Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovich not to politicize gas cooperation between the two countries, a source in the Kremlin said Friday, RIA Novosti reported.
Russia also believes that cooperation between Ukraine and the customs union of Russia, Belarus, and Kazakhstan in the 3+1 format, proposed earlier by Yanukovich, under which Ukraine does not join the union, is unacceptable, a source in the Kremlin said, adding that Russia expected Ukraine to fully join the union.
At a meeting on Thursday, Medvedev and Yanukovich failed to agree in a dispute over the price of Russian gas supplies to Ukraine and the prospects of the countrys accession to the customs union, Russian business daily Kommersant reported earlier on Friday.
Sources in the governments of both countries have not ruled out the possibility that the countries could face another gas conflict in early 2012, Kommersant said. Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovich reiterated that Ukraine was still unhappy with the gas contract and could go to court, the daily said.
In early 2009, Ukraine shut down Russian gas supplies through its gas transport system to Europe, over a dispute on the price of Russian gas supplies to the country. Since then, the Ukrainian government has been seeking to revise the agreement on the price, which was finally concluded by Ukraines then-Prime Minister, Yulia Timoshenko.
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