Ukrainian Minister of Fuel and Energy Ivan Plachkov was in Moscow Wednesday to discuss an escalating row with Russian officials over shipments of Russian natural gas deliveries to Europe, DPA reported. Plachkov was set to talk with Alexei Miller, the chairman of the board of Russian gas producer Gazprom, among others, sources close to Gazprom said. Russia is demanding that Ukraine pay an almost five hundred per cent price hike for its natural gas, which would set prices at 230 U.S. dollars a barrel from January 1. Kiev has threatened in retaliation to siphon gas from the transit to Western Europe. Signaling Kiev's intention to do just this, Ukrainian Prime Minister Yury Yekhanurov on Wednesday at a Kiev press conference described the proposed price hike as "absolutely unacceptable" and "direct economic pressure on (Ukraine) with inevitable results". Yekhanurov's government has repeatedly warned that if Ukrainian national interest were threatened it would rather tap into the gas sent by Russia to Europe than accept an economic catastrophe resulting from a shut-off of Russian gas supplies. Gazprom spokesman Sergei Kuprianov said Ukraine's refusal to pay a standard European price for Russian natural gas, and threat to steal the gas instead, also constituted unwarranted pressure on Russian interests. "This is an extremely strange statement," Kuprianov said. "This is proof that (the Ukrainian government) simply does not have a clear decision on its policy in this critical situation."
