MOSCOW, January 5 (RIA Novosti) - The chairman of the Russian parliament's lower house international affairs committee said Thursday he was surprised with the statement of the Ukrainian foreign minister on the solution of the recent gas dispute between the two countries.
"I strongly disagree with the statement and I am surprised that such words came out of Ukrainian foreign minister's mouth," Konstantin Kosachev said.
Ukrainian Minister Borys Tarasyuk said after a meeting with foreign ambassadors that the result of the talks between the Russian energy giant Gazprom and the Ukrainian national gas company Naftogaz was a fiasco for Russia.
Kosachev said that the Ukrainian president and prime minister, as well as the Russian leadership, had evaluated the agreements on the natural gas deliveries as a mutual victory.
"It is even more surprising when the Ukrainian foreign minister gathers Western European ambassadors and tells them that the result of the talks was a fiasco for Russia," Kosachev said.
The heads of Gazprom and Naftogaz signed Wednesday a 5-year contract to supply Russian natural gas to Ukraine at $230 per 1,000 cu m through RosUkrEnergo, a company transporting Turkmen gas to Ukraine.
