Putin demands Ukraine compensate for low gas prices

Ukraine will be unable to buy the Russian gas due to a sharp increase of the price tag. Vladimir Putin said that Russia had subsidized Ukraine over the past 15 years with $3-5 billion support through cheap costs for energy supplies and wanted now to be compensated for that. Thus, the price for the Russian gas for Ukraine will be 12-17 percent higher than at the market. The price for the Russian gas will include apart from the market cost the compensation for the losses over the past years, the Kommersant Ukraine newspaper quotes their source in Gazprom as saying. Ukraine's Energy Minister Yury Baiko believes that Ukraine will face at least a 10-percent increase in the prices for the Russian gas in 2008. Currently, Ukraine buys a mixture of Russian and Asian gas at the price of $139 per 1000 cubic meters.