Moscow, January 16 (Interfax) - The conflict around gas transit to Europe via Ukraine has become an international issue, and hopefully, Europe will support Russia's initiative to call an international meeting on this matter, said Russian President Dmitry Medvedev.
“Unfortunately, this issue has gone beyond bilateral relations and the legal framework,” Medvedev said during a ceremony of accepting the credentials from foreign ambassadors on Friday.
“In order to address the gas hunger situation, it was proposed to hold a summit, an international conference on gas delivery to European consumers,” he said.
“We are ready to search for long-term solutions and we hope that Ukraine will demonstrate a responsible approach and our European partners will help find the needed solution,” the Russian president said.
The gas crisis “was the result of inappropriate, and basically non-agreed and unlawful blocking of the Russian gas transit to European consumers, which led to the problems for a number of countries,” Medvedev said.
“I will not hide it, we believed that energy security issues that were raised on many occasions both on the international platforms and at the G8 summit in St. Petersburg had once and for all ensured the smooth transit of Russian gas to Europe. Unfortunately, life turned out to be more diverse in its own way, with Ukraine still not letting Russian gas into Europe,” the president said.
