Russian President Dmitry Medvedev will host an international summit with consumer and transit countries tomorrow (17 January) to discuss the stability of gas supplies to Europe, the Kremlin announced yesterday (15 January).
The summit will be held in Moscow and the foreign ministry is already sending out invitations, the Kremlin added.
At the same time, Ukrainian President Viktor Yuschenko called a summit of Eastern European leaders in Kiev today (16 January) to coordinate their positions. A spokesperson said five leaders are expected to attend, but named only Poland's President Lech Kaczynski and his Lithuanian colleague Valdas Adamkus among these.
Meanwhile, Ukrainian Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko is expected in Moscow, in principle for one-to-one talks with her Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin. The move signals that she may also attend the Moscow summit, but also confirms perceptions that she and President Yushchenko are moving in opposing camps.
Earlier, Putin will fly to Berlin today to meet German Chancellor Angela Merkel, in a visit that had been scheduled before the crisis started.
For his part, Yuschenko was received on short notice at 10 Downing Street by British Prime Minister Gordon Brown, whose office described the talks as "constructive".
Besides the diplomatic initiatives, Russia and Ukraine also seem to be competing on other fronts, with both sides airing ideas on how to solve the crisis.
Putin suggested yesterday that European clients should form a consortium to buy so-called 'technical gas' directly from Russia, which is needed to pump supplies through Ukraine's pipelines. Moscow had earlier insisted that Ukraine should pay for technical gas. Italy described the idea as "constructive", but other EU countries did not rush to state their opinion.
The Russian proposal was countered by Yuschenko, who said in London that Ukraine was ready to pump Russian natural gas to Europe free of charge until an agreement is found. However, he said that for pumping to begin, Russia first had to deliver gas to the Ukrainian transit pipeline system.
It is unclear how the EU will be represented at the Moscow summit. So far, announcements suggest that Energy Commissioner Andris Piebalgs and Czech Energy Minister Martin Riman, representing the EU Presidency, will attend, provided that both the Russian and Ukrainian leadership are fully involved.
The Commission fears that Putin will use the Moscow summit for propaganda purposes, in a similar manner to the recent reception of the prime ministers of Slovakia and Bulgaria (EurActiv 15/01/09). But in the event that Ukraine is not represented, the EU executive would be unable to prevent member countries from taking part, a diplomat said.
Sources from the Brussels institutions told EurActiv that Russia is playing its cards much more wisely than Ukraine, speculating that a network of former KGB agents in the former Soviet Republic is probably also contributing to weakening Kiev's leverage.
