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Masked State Security Service guards secure the entrace of Naftogaz, Ukraine’s state gas monopoly, on March 4. AP (Staff and wire reports) - Masked and armed with automatic weapons, 20 guards from Ukraine’s State Security Service on March 4 searched the headquarters of state natural gas company Naftogaz. The raid was part of a vicious political struggle over ownership of some 11 billion cubic meters of gas worth more than $2 billion.

The episode is yet another sordid sideshow in the nation’s ongoing political and economic chaos.

The national security service is controlled by President Victor Yushchenko while Naftogaz answers to his rival, Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko. The new flare-up between the two leaders came just days after they pledged cooperation to help the ailing economy and secure another installment of a $16.5 billion International Monetary Fund loan.

“This is a fight over 11 billion cubic meters of gas which now belongs to Ukraine,” Tymoshenko said after March 4 talks in Paris with French President Nicolas Sarkozy. “The shadowy corporation, RosUkrEnergo, wanted to claim ownership, but the government will not allow that.”

Tymoshenko accused Yushchenko of destabilizing Ukraine on behalf of RosUkrEnergo, which recently lost its status as exclusive intermediary in supplying imported Russian gas to Ukraine. A presidential spokeswoman denied wrongdoing.

Serhiy Davydenko, head of Naftogaz’s legal department, said the security agents were seeking original contracts from the Jan. 19 deal with Gazprom, Russia’s state-owned gas giant. The agreement ended a two-week cutoff of Russian gas to Europe and removed RosUkrEnergo from future gas transactions between the two nations.

The armed State Security Service, or SBU, investigators left Naftogaz after a court order. Davydenko said the dispute would not lead to renewed disruptions of Russian gas supplies to Ukraine and the rest of Europe.

In a statement, Russia’s Gazprom said it was “disturbed” by the situation. “We hope that these events will not prevent the complete and timely [payment] by Naftogaz for Russian gas supplied to Ukraine in February.”

By March 7, Naftogaz must pay $400 million for February gas consumption. The company said it has already paid 80 percent of the amount, and had the money to pay the rest of the bill, despite its huge financial problems.

Oleksandr Turchynov, first deputy prime minister and a Tymoshenko ally, warned SBU agents not to abide by “criminal orders” contrary to state interests. “You should not become weapons of criminals, which with the appointment of the president are managing the [state security] service or controlling it,” Turchynov said.

A top SBU official said the raid was part of an investigation into the illegal transfer of gas ownership to Naftogaz. Also on March 4, Tymoshenko said customs officials cleared Naftogaz’s legal ownership of the 11 billion cubic meters of gas purchased at a discount from Gazprom as part of the January settlement with Russia.

RosUkrEnergo is 50 percent owned by Gazprom, while two Ukrainians – billionaire Dmytro Firtash and his partner, Ivan Fursin – own the rest.

Naftogaz spokeswoman Valentyn Zemlyansky said the company has done nothing wrong. The president backs the SBU probe.

“The special services acted strictly on a lawful basis, within the framework of their authority as set down by legislation,” presidential spokeswoman Iryna Vannikova said. “The actions of the SBU were quite tough as is required in a matter of this sort. The president believes that it is in fact resolve and firmness that are required in investigating abuses.”

Corruption in the gas trade and who is to blame is already an issue in the presidential election expected in January.

In an interview with the French newspaper Le Monde, Tymoshenko indicated she would run and win. The election will end “not in my destruction but in his political suicide,” Tymoshenko predicted.