MOSCOW, November 1 (RIA Novosti) - Russia's prime minister on Sunday briefed his Swedish counterpart, the current EU president, about possible problems with Ukrainian payment for Russian gas and its transit to European consumers, a spokesman said.
The Russian government spokesperson said Vladimir Putin spoke by telephone to Fredrik Reinfeldt, whose country holds the rotating EU presidency, and was reassured by that the Swedish prime minister would bring Russia's concerns to the attention of the European Commission.
"During the meeting, Vladimir Putin focused the attention of the EU leadership on signals coming in, including through official channels from Kiev, regarding potential problems with payment for gas supplies," the official said.
Putin warned that payment problems could lead to difficulties for European consumers receiving Russian gas via Ukraine. A dispute between Moscow and Kiev at the start of the year over gas debts and 2009 deliveries left millions of Europeans without gas in January.
The Russian prime minister said on Friday that his Ukrainian counterpart, Yulia Tymoshenko, had told him by telephone that President Viktor Yushchenko was blocking payments for Russian gas supplies.
Putin also said the European Union had not lent Ukraine any money to pay for Russian gas. European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso said on Friday he hoped Russia and Ukraine will resolve gas issues on their own without EU mediation.
Kiev on Friday rejected Putin's comments, with the Ukrainian president's representative for international energy security issues Bohdan Sokolovsky calling them "unfriendly."
"On July 30, the European Commission and three honorable international financial institutions published a joint statement on a $1.7 billion loan to buy Russian gas. However, the head of the Ukrainian government is still slow at fulfilling the conditions in order for these funds to be transferred," Ukraine's presidential press service quoted Sokolovskiy as saying.
Kiev asked the EU for a $4.2 billion loan to pump Russian gas into its underground storages in order to avoid problems with gas transit to Europe.
"The EU has not given Ukraine any money," Putin told leaders of his United Russia party on Friday. "Ukraine has not received a single cent, not one hryvnia."
The January standoff was resolved after negotiations between Putin and Tymoshenko that led to Russian energy giant Gazprom and Ukrainian state energy company Naftogaz signing new contracts on deliveries to Ukraine and gas transit to Europe.
That deal has been consistently opposed by Yushchenko, who has repeatedly called for the contracts to be revised, saying that Naftogaz had lost at least $2.5 billion from Russian natural gas transit.
Tymoshenko and Yushchenko were political allies during the "orange revolution" that swept the president to power, but have become bitter rivals and are both running in January's presidential elections.
