LONDON, April 12 (RIA Novosti's Alexander Smotrov) - Gazprom does not swap Russian-speakers' rights for gas contracts, Gazexport general director Alexander Medvedev has said.
At the press conference in London, journalists asked him whether the gas contract is to be seen as a swap for the political concessions of Turkmenistan. (In late 2003 the conclusion of a 25-year agreement between it and Gazexport on broadening Turkmen gas purchases coincided in time with Ashkhabad's rejection of the double citizenship agreement with Russia.)
"I'm no expert on migration but I assure you that we are not entitled to exchange our citizens' rights for gas", Medvedev said.
To him, the question of Russian speakers has its specifics in the post-Soviet countries from the Baltic Sea to Central Asia.
"The political dialog on it is in the hands of the Foreign Ministry", Medvedev noted.
