Visiting Ukrainian President Viktor Yushchenko said Friday that his prime minister lacked careful consideration in handling a gas row with Russia, news from Tajik capital Dushanbe reported.
Yushchenko criticized as inaccurate Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko's remarks that Ukraine's state gas company Naftogaz and Russia's gas giant Gazprom would set up a joint venture, the Interfax news agency said.
It was a downright lie that Ukraine would import Russian natural gas at 300 U.S. dollars for 1,000 cubic meters this year, he added.
The president said that under an agreement with his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin in February, Russia would charge 135 dollars per 1,000 cubic meters of natural gas in the fourth quarter of last year and 179.5 dollars in 2008.
He and Putin had never discussed the establishment of any joint venture in their talks, Yushchenko said.
Ukraine's reputation was tarnished due to the gas dispute, he said, adding that Tymoshenko and her government should carry out well-conceived policies to resolve such issue.
On Thursday, Ukrainian media made public a letter written by Tymoshenko to Yushchenko, in which the prime minister rejected part of a gas supply deal with Russia, a day after the end of a three-day cut in supplies that raised concerns in Europe.
Ukraine sits on the main transit route for Russian gas exports to Europe, accounting for the transmission of a quarter of the continent's gas supply.
In 2006, a similar dispute between Kiev and Moscow sent jitters among European customers after Gazprom cut all gas supplies to Ukraine.
Source: Xinhua
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