Kyiv, January 15 (Interfax) - The entourage of Ukrainian President Viktor Yushchenko has expressed bewilderment over the statement by Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko who said that Russia will be paid for technical gas without prior discussion of its price.
“The prime minister, like any other minister or Ukrainian official, must do everything in order to save every hryvnia of the national budget and the Ukrainian families’ budget. So the guarantees given by Tymoshenko to Russia about an absolute payment for technical gas without a prior discussion of its price look strange,” deputy chief of the presidential administration Andrei Kyslynsky was quoted as saying by the Ukrainian presidential press office.
“Also alarming are the statements by Russian leaders made recently with regard to the agreements on monitoring the Ukrainian gas transportation system. If Ukrainian President Viktor Yushchenko has never discussed the matter with his Russian colleagues and commissioned no one to hold such talks, then why would Russians be so confident of making such statements?” Kyslynsky said.
“I would like to believe that at the time, when the whole Ukrainian power should be monolithic in defending its national interests, no one of our governmental officials will retreat,” he said.
