Russia was involved in the scandal surrounding the signing of an agreement on the establishment of a consortium for the construction of the LNG-terminal in Odesa region, Director of the Penta Center for Applied Political Studies Volodymyr Fesenko has said.
“I think that certainly there were some internal conflicts in the
Spanish company concerning the need to sign this agreement and the terms
of its signing. Perhaps, there also was the influence of the Russians,
who in this way wanted to undermine the importance of this matter… I
do not doubt that there was Russian influence. This scandal would not
have happened for nothing, I think that it was provoked from the
outside,” the expert said at a press conference in Kyiv on Wednesday.
According to Fesenko, Gazprom’s influence was evident in the situation with the signing of the contract.
At the same time, some of the officials who were responsible for the
signing the agreement failed to understand the situation on time – there
was not enough oversight, he said.
This event showed there are internal power conflicts, on the one
hand. However, it also showed the importance of the gas issue for
Ukraine’s economy, politics and government in general, Fesenko said.
This also showed that not all decisions are properly prepared and overseen in Ukraine, he added.
As reported, on November 26, 2012, the State Agency for Investment
and National Projects of Ukraine signed a cooperation agreement with Gas
Natural Fenosa as part of the construction of the LNG terminal in Odesa
region. The document was signed by Jordi Sarda Bonvehi, who earlier
introduced himself as a representative of the Spanish company Enegas,
which was allegedly interested in investing into the Ukrainian
LNG-terminal.
However, Gas Natural Fenosa and Enegas denied they had signed any
deals with the Ukrainian government. Each denied that Jordi Sarda
Bonvehi represented it. The two companies said they were not considering
joining the consortium that would run the project.
The LNG-terminal project manager, Vitaliy Demianiuk, explained that
Sarda Bonvehi is a professional commercial agent who acts on behalf of
many Spanish companies.
“In this case, Bonvehi technically organized a visit of Gas Natural
representatives to Ukraine, and had to accompany them during the
ceremony… The arrival of representatives of Gas Natural was expected on
Monday, but they did not arrive in Kyiv. After contacting Barcelona, he
(Jordi Sarda Bonvehi) decided that he could sign the agreement himself
and confirm his authority later… However, then there was a
misunderstanding in Gas Natural, and it turned out that Bonvehi had
actually exceeded his authority,” Demyaniuk explained.
The Batkivschyna United Opposition demanded that Ukrainian President
Viktor Yanukovych, Ukrainian Premier Mykola Azarov, and head of the
state agency for investment Vladyslav Kaskiv be held to account for
cooperating with “an unknown Spanish investor.”
