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Yanukovych to help Russia build pipelines bypassing Ukraine, double gas transit Kyiv should persuade Moscow to nearly double Russian gas transit to Europe via Ukraine, Ukrainian presidential frontrunner Victor Yanukovych said on Jan. 27 while ruling out the sale of transit pipelines.

Yanukovych also said he wanted Ukraine to help build the Nord and South Stream pipelines, planned by Russia to transit gas avoiding states like Ukraine and Belarus after a pricing dispute with neighbors led to gas cut-offs to European Union customers.

Opposition leader Yanukovych, 59, led Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko by 10 percentage points in a first round vote on Jan. 17 and the two rivals face each other in a Feb. 7 runoff for president.

“We will propose Europe and Russia the creation of a consortium, which would allow Ukraine to raise the volumes of gas transit to about 200 billion cubic meters,” he said.

Ukraine usually transits 110-120 bcm of Russian gas a year or a quarter of Europe’s gas use, but volumes fell to 96 bcm last year as customers reduced purchases amid the economic crisis and switched to cheaper fuels such as liquefied gas.

Moscow had said it could increase supplies via Ukraine if it was allowed to co-own and manage gas pipelines, but Ukraine adopted a law forbidding their privatization.

Since then Moscow decided to increase supplies bypassing Ukraine, and pricing disputes with Kyiv only spurred two key projects, Nord Stream and South Stream, which will deliver gas under the Baltic and Black seas to Europe’s north and south.

“We are not talking about selling the (transit) system, which is forbidden by Ukrainian law,” Yanukovych said.

“We will introduce proposals about Ukraine’s participation in the building of Nord and South Stream,” Yanukovych told a small group of foreign journalists. He gave no details.

Yanukovych, who is backed by wealthy businessmen in the industrial east of the country, was Moscow’s favorite candidate in the previous presidential elections five years ago, which he lost.

Last year, Russian sympathies switched to Tymoshenko, 49, after she signed a new gas deal with Russia’s Prime Minister and most influential politician Vladimir Putin at the start of 2009 to resume supplies to Europe and avoid new crises.

Yanukovych also said on Jan. 27 that he would not cooperate with Tymoshenko if he won election next month.