The Verkhovna Rada, Ukraine's parliament, has prolonged for two months the activities of its temporary commission investigating the Stockholm Arbitration Tribunal's ruling, the allegations of corrupt activities against the Swiss-registered gas trader RosUkrEnergo AG, the involvement of public officials into this case, and the arrest of the former chief of the State Customs Service, Anatoliy Makarenko.
Some 318 out of 411 MPs registered in the hall of the Verkhovna Rada voted for this decision.
The commission is to submit its report to parliament in November.
As reported, the temporary investigatory commission was set up on July 1, 2010.
It was reported earlier that the Arbitration Institute of the Stockholm Chamber of Commerce obliged Naftogaz Ukrainy to return 11 billion cubic meters of gas to RosUkrEnergo and pay it a fine in commodity form in an amount of 1.1 billion cubic meters of gas in line with a contract.
Security Service Chief Valery Khoroshkovsky announced the opening of a criminal case into the infliction of damage on Ukraine based on the Arbitration Institute of the Stockholm Chamber of Commerce’s decision. Media have reported that investigators imposed travel restrictions on Ihor Didenko, Naftogaz Ukrainy’s deputy head. State Customs Service ex-chief Makarenko has been under arrest for two months.
RosUkrEnergo was set up by Gazprom and Centragas Holding AG on a parity basis in summer 2004. Centragas Holding AG belongs to Ukrainian businessmen Dmytro Firtash (90%) and Ivan Fursin (10%). RosUkrEnergo held a monopoly over supplies of natural gas to Ukraine in 2006-2008.
