Miller threatens to turn gas off for the Ukraine

Gazprom has warned that due to non-payments the Ukraine may come back to the situation of the beginning of 2009, when gas supplies were stopped almost for three weeks. Analysts think the threat real, the RBK daily writes.

The Ukraine didn’t pay for February gas supplies and its debt is close to $2 billion, Gazprom’s CEO Alexei Miller reported. “March 7th was the deadline for payment for February gas supplies to the Ukraine. Gazprom didn’t receive any payments. Taking into account the discount, which is in force in the first quarter, overdue payment grew significantly and made up $1.89 billion,” – he stated on Friday.

In fact, Miller implied that Ukrainian non-payments for gas might lead to termination of the supplies. “We can’t supply gas for free. Either the Ukraine pays its debt and for the current supplies, or a risk to come back to the situation of the beginning of 2009 appears,” – he warned. Then European countries were cut off from Russian gas for 20 days.