Yuriy Boyko and Viktor Medvedchuk, leaders of the Russia-friendly political party Opposition Platform – For Life met with Alexey Miller, CEO of the Russian energy giant Gazprom, in Saint Petersburg, Russia on June 7.
Boyko, Medvedchuk and Miller reportedly discussed the sale of Russian gas to Ukraine under a 25 percent discount of the market price that would allegedly cut gas tariffs for households, Ukrainian media reported. The 112 Ukraine TV channel, owned by Medvedchuk’s ally Taras Kozak, broadcasted the meeting.
Miller said that concluding a contract for the direct supply of Russian gas to Ukraine is “the most important issue.”
The Gazprom CEO also said that “there are no signals” for the deal coming from Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskiy.
Ukraine stopped buying Russian gas in November 2015, switching to gas supplies from countries of the European Union. According to Ukrainian state oil and gas company Naftogaz, Ukraine imported 7 billion cubic meters of gas in 2018, 5.7 billion of which came from Slovakia.
At the meeting, Boyko said that it was also necessary for Ukraine to reach an agreement with Gazprom on guarantees for the transit of Russian gas through Ukrainian territory from 2020.
The Ukrainian-Russian gas transit agreement is due to expire on January 1, 2020. Trilateral talks between Ukraine, Russia and the EU about the transfer of gas from Russia to the EU through Ukraine have not been successful.
The meeting comes six weeks before the July 21 parliamentary elections. Boyko, former Energy Minister and Deputy Prime Minister, leads the Opposition Platform – For Life political party. Medvedchuk, a close associate of Russian President Vladimir Putin, leads the party alongside Boyko as the head of its Political Council.
Recent polls have shown Opposition Platform – For Life to be the second most popular party in the run-up to the parliamentary elections, with 10.7-percent support among decided voters, according to the Rating Group Ukraine pollster. It trails behind Servant of the People party which is associated with President Volodymyr Zelenskiy.
Boyko and Medvedchuk have already met with Miller this year. On March 22, Boyko and Medvedchuk met Gazprom CEO and Russian prime minister Dmitry Medvedev to discuss Ukrainian-Russian relations, including gas deals with Moscow. That meeting drew fierce criticism as it was only a week before the first round of the Ukrainian Presidential elections, in which Boyko was a candidate.
Besides gas transit, Gazprom is indirectly involved in Ukraine’s nuclear energy industry. A firm in the Czech Republic which appears to be ultimately owned by Gazprombank, Škoda JS, was selected to build two new reactors at the Khmelnitskiy nuclear power plant, some 300 kilometers west of Kyiv. As journalists with RFE/RL’s investigative program Schemes revealed, Škoda JS “was chosen for this without an open tender.”
