Ukrainian justice minister says Gazprom's statements about Naftogaz's debt groundless
KYIV. July 9 (Interfax) - Statements by Gazprom CEO Alexei Miller on the increase of the debt of Naftogaz Ukrainy are legally groundless, Ukrainian Justice Minister Pavlo Petrenko said.
"The Gazprom head, when he makes such statements, is guided by neither economics nor commerce - these are his political, unfounded statements," Petrenko said at a briefing in Kyiv on Tuesday.
He said that there is no sense in responding to such statements from a legal point of view.
"We've filed the relevant claim at the Stockholm Arbitration Institution. Statements about this were made. The claim contains demands to compensate for the over-payment of $6 billion and demands regarding the unfair price. I believe that only the court can issue a legally and economically fair decision," Petrenko said.
He said that at present, all the required procedures for appointing arbiters and hearings on the case were underway.
Earlier on Tuesday, Gazprom CEO Alexei Miller said: "The deadline for June payment passed yesterday, and once again we have not received money from Naftogaz. As a result, Ukraine's debt to Gazprom for 1.7 billion cubic meters of gas for the period June 1-16 is $838 million. The overall debt is a gigantic $5.296 billion. In total, 11.535 billion cubic meters of Russian gas has still not been paid for. This is a huge volume, the same amount that Russia supplies to Poland each year."