MOSCOW - The CEO of Russian gas giant Gazprom, Alexei Miller, told reporters on Monday that Kyiv's policy of seeking foreign investments for the country's gas transport system could lead to its ceasing to exist as a technical facility, and that it belongs in a "museum."
"If, as one hears in Ukraine, the gas transport system is a historical treasure, its place, apparently, is in a museum," Miller said.
Asked what place Gazprom would give the Ukrainian pipe considering the construction of the South Stream pipeline passing Ukraine by, Miller said, "That completely depends on the role Ukraine itself gives the gas transport system."
Miller’s comments come in the run-up to the next round of negotiations with Naftogaz Ukrainy slated for Jan. 17.
Kyiv is demanding new concession from Gazprom, without offering anything in return.
The Russian company has never disguised its desire to take possession of Ukraine’s gas transport system, and has called that a condition for lowering prices for the country – as has already transpired with Belarus and Beltransgaz.
