The gas crisis appears to end

After days of conflict, the end of the tunnel seems to finally arrive to European customers who suffered the cessation of supply of Russian gas. According to agencies in Moscow, the Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin Monday evening gave the green light to the gas giant Gazprom, controlled by the Russian state, to resume gas supplies via Ukraine to Europe halted for six days due a conflict between Moscow and Kiev.

Earlier in the day, the Czech presidency of the European Union and the Russian gas giant Gazprom had indicated that deliveries of Russian gas to Europe via Ukraine, would most likely resume tomorrow morning. "The Russian side has promised to reopen the valves, if there was no obstacle to European hours 08H00 (07H00 GMT) Tuesday," said Czech Minister of Energy, Martin Riman, whose country chairs the EU, repeating a statement made earlier by a spokesman of the presidency. The director of Gazprom, Alexander Medvedev, had confirmed the resumption of deliveries.

Finally, Moscow and Kiev have found common ground. In a statement, the Russian group Gazprom said on Monday that Ukraine has signed the agreement allowing the resumption of supplies of Russian gas to Europe without the additional clause opposed by Moscow. The new version of the agreement provides that the European observers, Russian and Ukrainian are deployed in measuring stations gas to Ukraine and Russia to ensure the transit of gas on the Ukrainian territory.

The situation is improving very much today, Sunday evening while the prospect of an early resumption of supplies of Russian gas through Ukraine to European countries away. The Russian president, Dmitri Medvedev, believed that the agreement on transit of Russian gas through Ukraine was "null and void", accusing Kiev of adding a hand on the text already signed by Moscow. Kiev had said that Ukraine had "no debt to Gazprom" and had not siphoned off gas destined for Europe. Sunday, Medvedev ordered the Russian government not to implement the Memorandum of Understanding torn by the Czech presidency of the European Union.

But despite the agreement signed Monday, tensions between Russia and Ukraine are still far from fading. The two countries have still not found a compromise for the price of gas deliveries to Ukraine. Russia calls for 2009, $ 470 per 1000 m3, or a rate two and a half times higher than in 2008, set at 179.50 dollars. Ukraine had refused at the end of December 2008 the price of 250 dollars per 1,000 m3, causing rumbles of Russia which had cut the day after the gas to Ukraine. Moreover, Gazprom seeks to group the Naftogaz Ukraine's debt of $ 600 million.