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Moscow, January 12 (Interfax) - A senior Kremlin official claimed on Saturday that the Russian-Ukrainian gas row is part of an alleged scheme by the Ukrainian leadership to divert public attention from domestic problems.

A recent statement by the Ukrainian president's chief of staff, Viktor Baloha, "confirms fears that have been expressed earlier, fears that the gas crisis has been specially provoked by the Ukrainian authorities in order to divert attention from the domestic problems of the country and to try to lay responsibility for them on anyone except themselves," Alexei Gromov deputy chief of the Russian president's staff, told Interfax.

To anyone who can see the causes of the crisis, "which has manifested itself in the illegal appropriation of Russian gas that was designated for European consumers and in Ukraine going back on its commitments as a transit country, it is perfectly clear that it has been created by the Ukrainian authorities," Gromov said.

Baloha's words about "some kind of political and economic blackmail on the part of Russia" are "inventions," the Kremlin official said.

As regards Baloha's warning that Ukraine is in danger of a default, "Mr. Baloha knows well whom he can bring his grievances against on this issue," Gromov said. "One shouldn't use one's inability to meet one's commitments of transmitting gas to European consumers as a means of fanning political passions. There are enough of them in Ukraine as it is."