The repeated revision of gas contracts between Ukraine and Russia over the past five years has been detrimental to Kyiv, said Viktor Yanukovych, who has been tentatively named the winner in the recent presidential elections in Ukraine.
"Why have these relations been revised several times over the past five years? Has this done us more good or more harm? The answer is obvious: this has certainly done us more harm than good. Therefore, I would wish that we return to the format of relations we had five years ago and take fair approaches to gas relations with both Russia and the European Union," Yanukovych said in an interview broadcast on the Russian news TV channel Rossiya-24 on Saturday.
Yanukovych said he had proposed five years ago "the establishment of a gas transportation consortium, which would help modernize the Ukrainian gas transportation system and increase the [annual] volume of gas pumped through it by about 60 billion-80 billion cubic meters to about 200 billion cubic meters," Yanukovych said.
"The existing gas transportation system is capable of attaining this goal efficiently and qualitatively," he said.
It would be absolutely natural to engage Russia in this process as the primary supplier of gas to Europe and as the main partner of Ukraine and the European countries buying gas, he said.
"They would get access to control and management of this gas transportation system and would have guarantees of energy security," Yanukovych said.
"Naturally, this would have been good for us, because we would not have lost the volume of gas pumped through, which means that our economic interests would have been taken into account," he said.
Instead of this, the construction of gas pipelines bypassing Ukraine has begun over the past five years, he said.
"With the construction of these gas pipelines, the volume of gas pumped through our gas transportation system would decline. Does this benefit Ukraine and should Russia and Europe do so?" Yanukovych said.
"This is a question to which I would like to have a clear answer from our partners, primarily Russia, and surely from our European partners, who expect our gas transportation system to work in a stable mode ensuring Europe’s energy security," he added.
