UKRAINE WAS ON VERGE OF LOSING ITS GAS TRANSPORTATION SYSTEM - PM TYMOSHENKO

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"I think we were at risk of losing, within a few weeks' time, once and for all, one of the most valuable state assets of geopolitical importance," Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko said at the Cabinet session Wednesday.

The Cabinet of Ministers is going to hear a report of the Chairman of the Board of the National JSC "Naftogaz Ukraine" concerning the company's activities in the last seven years.

"You will see for yourself what was done to the gas transportation capacity of Ukraine," Ms. Tymoshenko noted, promising that the data unveiled will be astonishing.

The premier said that an inter-agency commission will be set up to probe into the company's deals.

Earlier, the "Ekonomicheskiye izvestiya" newspaper, citing a source in the pro-presidential Our Ukraine-People's Self-Defense bloc, which is the Tymoshenko bloc'(BYuT)s coalition ally, reported that one of the BYuT leaders, First Vice Premier Oleksandr Turchynov "has repeatedly been to Moscow and was able to agree on the highest level that, in return for Russia's freezing the gas price for Ukraine, Tymoshenko will hand over to Gazprom a minority package in the Ukrainian gas transportation system."

The prime minister has categorically denied these allegations. "This is not true," she said. "Turchynov did not go to Moscow and there is no secret. Our political force has long advocated the idea that the gas transportation system must belong exclusively to the state, so that there is no possibility of privatizing it, granting it as a concession, or making it part of an international consortium," the premier told the Polish Press Agency.

Moreover, the prime minister believes that the tariffs for gas transportation imposed by Ukraine are too low. "The price of gas has grown 350 percent in the last two years, while the transit fees have risen but 6 percent and remain much below the market price . Moreover, Russia pays 25 percent less than is the world price for the use of Ukraine's gas holders," Ms. Tymoshenko specified.

UKRINFORM