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Russia may reduce gas price for Ukraine if Black Sea fleet remains in Crimea Russia's main requirement for reducing the price of Russian gas delivered to Ukraine may be the prolongation of the deployment of Russia's Black Sea fleet in Crimea, Konstantin Zatulin, a Russian State Duma deputy, told reporters in Donetsk on Friday.

"Roughly speaking: you leave the Black Sea fleet, and we are ready to reduce [the price for the Russian gas] for this," Zatulin said, the Ostrov Internet publication reported.

Zatulin explained why it is not profitable for Russia to make concessions to Ukraine regarding the issue of prices for natural gas: "Industry [in Ukraine] which sells in Russia is a competitor to the industry functioning [in Russia]… If we do this [reduce the price for gas for Ukraine], we must understand that we give some competitive advantages to Ukrainian industry by depriving Russian industry of [these advantages]," Zatulin said.