The contract between Gazprom and Naftogaz on the supply of fuel to Europe through the territory of Ukraine will not be prolonged ever and for nothing. This was stated by the chairman of the board of the Russian company Alexander Medvedev on Tuesday, March 24. "The current contract, under no circumstances, even with the change of the Sun and the Moon, will not be prolonged," he said.. "But this does not mean that there will be no transit," Medvedev said right away. He recalled that Russian President Vladimir Putin for another couple of years instructed to hold negotiations with the Ukrainian side on the transit, when the old contract expires. So Moscow is ready for dialogue. But Naftogaz should "justify the economic attractiveness of transit through the territory of Ukraine," the Rossiyskaya Gazeta quotes Medvedev's words. The question concerns not only the volume of gas pumping and the tariff rate. There are many nuances in the matter, so the negotiations promise to be complicated. However, while only preliminary consultations are taking place, there are no negotiations as such between Gazprom and Naftogaz, Medvedev said..

The Russian concern decided to terminate all existing agreements with the Ukrainian side after the Stockholm Arbitration took the side of Kiev in the issue of compensation for reducing the volume of gas supplies to Europe via the Ukrainian gas transmission system. According to Moscow, the Nord Stream-2 gas pipeline under construction is a worthy alternative to transit through Ukraine. But as the European allies of Kiev insist that Ukraine should not suffer big losses because of the new route of Russian fuel supplies, Moscow promised to keep part of the export supplies through the Nezalezhny.