Says pipeline should be pumping gas like a piston
Novo-Ogaryovo – Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin accused Ukraine of “absolute technological sloppiness [that] borders on crime.”
In response to the latest in a series of requests from Gazprom for resuming the transit of Russian gas to Europe, Ukraine had “sent in several documents in which it asks for gas to be supplied to it for technological needs, in order to fill up the export pipe through which our gas is transported to Europe,” Putin said at a meeting with Paolo Scaroni, head of Italian energy company Eni.
“It is clear that, in that pipe, there should always be gas that operates as a piston and pushes through the volume that is being exported,” Putin said.
“If there is no gas in there, it is absolute technological sloppiness, which borders on crime.”
“There needs, of course, to be technological arrangements for gas to be delivered to our European partners via Ukraine. Having such arrangements in place is the duty of the transit country. Judging by what our Ukrainian friends are telling us, they are not in a position to do this,” Putin said.
