Meeting his visiting colleagues on what he said was "his invitation", Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin again blamed Ukraine for blocking gas transit across its territory and suggested that the European Commission should apply more pressure on Kiev to resolve the crisis. The prime minister of non-EU member Moldova, Zinaida Greceani, also attended the joint meeting.
"We are hearing from our Ukrainian colleagues and friends that they are having problems with the transit of our natural gas to you […] But these are not our problems, but the problems of the transit country. And they must solve these problems," said Putin. In what appeared to be a novelty, the Russian government's website published the full transcript of the meeting.
The prime ministers later traveled to Ukraine, where they also held high level talks. Upon his return from Kiev, Slovak Prime Minister Robert Fico expressed his growing frustration at the failure of Russia and Ukraine to resolve their differences over debts and pricing.
"I cannot imagine what would have to happen within 24 hours, or 48 hours, for the gas transit to resume […] It is practically impossible. The conditions laid by one and the other side are so contrasting that this simply cannot work," he told a news conference in Bratislava.
The Commission, however, made clear that the visits of Stanishev and Fico were not part of a coordinated effort by the Union to solve the crisis. During a European Parliament plenary session, Green MEP Claude Turmes (Luxembourg) yesterday lashed out at Bulgaria and Slovakia for undermining the Union's unity in dealing with the gas crisis.
Bulgarian Prime Minister Sergei Stanishev said after the talks with Putin that he had brought forward proposals that bring the disagreements to an end. The Bulgarian press writes that these would involve swap deals, whereby Russia would sell certain amounts of gas to Ukraine to be channelled onwards.
But the issue of so-called 'technical gas', used to maintain pressure in the pipelines, again constituted a major hurdle. Besides, the swap would be technically impossible to achieve for Bulgaria, even if the 'technical gas' issue were to be resolved, it later emerged.
Russia proposes European gas summit
In the meantime, Russian President Dmitry Medvedev suggested that a "gas summit" between the interested parties be held in Moscow to resolve the crisis. Ukraine's prime minister, Yulia Tymoshenko, and its president, Viktor Yushchenko, separately said on Wednesday that they would not travel to Moscow, but supported the idea of a gas summit in a European capital.
It was later announced that Tymoshenko will travel to Moscow on Saturday, after she held a midnight telephone conversation with Putin.
For his part, Stanishev is in constant telephone contact with a counsellor to Commission President Barroso, according to his press service.
With contributions from agencies and the EurActiv network.
