Ukraine prepares documents for suing RF for gas contract terms.

MOSCOW, September 6 (Itar-Tass) -- Ukraine has prepared documents for
filing a suit in court of arbitration to resolve the gas dispute with
Russia, President of Ukraine Viktor Yanukovich said in an interview with
the Kommersant newspaper.
Kiev demands from Moscow an average German gas price minus
transportation costs and 100 dollars of additional discount provided under
the Kharkov agreements. Answering a question about Ukraine's possible
concessions in the gas negotiations, he agreed that concessions should be,
when it comes to discounts and price reductions. However, Yanukovich said
that Ukraine "does not need it."
"We just want to go back in a civilized mode, to the European market
price," he said.
"The formula of 2009 prices is questionable, it, to put it mildly, is
controversial, we can not agree to it. If you look at realistic prices,
for example, in Germany, we pay about 200 dollars more," Yanukovich said.
"And we would like understand for what we are punished! But transit tariff
in Germany is two times higher than in Ukraine. Why? For us this
overpayment - and we believe that we are overpaying - is about 5-6 billion
dollars every year. During the ten years of the contract it is 60 billion!
If you look in the context of the country's annual budget, it is
approximately 20 percent. About what kind of additional concessions to
Russia can you speak then? Now we speak only about returning to a fair
price - a German price minus 70 dollars in transit tariff from the Russian
border to Germany."
President of Ukraine expressed the opinion that the existing gas
contracts "discredit the strategic level" of relations between Ukraine and
Russia, and their terms are "written as if for an enemy."
"We have been negotiating this issue for a year and a half,"
Yanukovich said. "Russia's position is absolutely unacceptable for us, and
if it is not changes, we will go to international arbitration. There is a
system of international courts - the Stockholm court, and the
International Court of Arbitration in the Hague."
Yanukovich has not named a deadline of filing a suit to a court of
arbitration, and only stressed that "a decision should have been made long
ago." At the same time, he added that Ukraine would not stop paying for
gas supplied under the contract as it goes to court.