President Dmitry Medvedev believes that Russia's Gazprom and Ukraine's Naftogaz can be unified on a mutually-beneficial basis and plans to discuss the issue with Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych during his upcoming visit to Kyiv.
"If we speak of any joint projects, joint ventures bringing together various gas and gas transporting assets not through the direct merger but the unificatin of, say, individual units, I believe it is quite possible and possible on a mutually-beneficial basis with due account to the wishes of the sides," he said in an interview with the Ukrainian media ahead of his visit.
Medvedev said he had not discussed the issue with Yanukovych. "There has been some talk on the subject, but it has not been discussed at the presidential level," he said.
Speaking of the idea of combining the two gas companies Medvedev said that any mergers are possible only on a pragmatic basis." "No matter how much we could sympathize with each other, no matter ho much we could love each other, it is possible to unite only proceeding from purely pragmatic considerations," Medvedev said.
Alliances "are not only possible, in some cases they are necessary," he said.
