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GAZPROM WILL TREAT CIS, EUROPE ALIKE. Aleksei Miller, who is CEO of Russia's state-owned gas monopoly Gazprom, told a general shareholders' meeting in Moscow on June 30 that Gazprom intends to abide by the same conditions in its relations with CIS states as with Europe, presumably meaning that CIS countries will be required to pay the full market price for gas, regnum.ru reported. On July 1, Gazprom spokesman Sergei Kupriyanov warned that the revision of the January 2006 gas deal between Russia and Ukraine that the new Ukrainian government under Yuliya Tymoshenko is demanding "endangers the security and continuity" of Gazprom's supplies to Europe, Interfax reported. LF

TURKMEN, UKRAINIAN GAS TALKS END WITHOUT AGREEMENT... Talks between a Ukrainian delegation headed by acting Fuel and Energy Minister Ivan Plachkov and Turkmenistan's Oil and Gas Ministry ended on June 30 in Ashgabat without an agreement on gas shipments for the second half of 2006, turkmenistan.ru reported. The two sides did reach an agreement on Ukrainian arrears of $64 million for previous shipments, which the Ukrainian side said it will pay by September. Turkmenistan offered to sell gas to Ukraine for $100 per 1,000 cubic meters in the fourth quarter of 2006 if Ukraine can arrange transport of the gas through Russia, an offer the Ukrainian delegation did not accept. DK

....AND ASHGABAT CONSIDERS PREVIOUS AGREEMENT INVALID. The report noted that Turkmenistan considers a late 2005 Turkmen-Ukrainian contract on 2006 shipments "invalid" after Russia's Gazprom declined to provide a transit license for the gas. Shipments under a different arrangement brokered with Gazprom on January 4 will be completed by September, the Turkmen side said. Under the current agreement, Ukraine pays $95 per 1,000 meters to Rosukrenergo, a Swiss-registered gas trader that sells Ukraine a mixture of Russian and Central Asian gas. The Ukrainian delegation has returned to Kyiv for consultations. The failure to reach agreement came a day after Russia's Gazprom and Turkmenistan broke off talks on a gas deal for the remainder of 2006 after failing to reach an agreement on price (see "RFE/RL Newsline," June 30, 2006). DK

UKRAINIAN PRESIDENT RULES OUT NEW ELECTIONS. Viktor Yushchenko said in a radio address to the nation on July 1 that he is not going to dissolve the Verkhovna Rada over its protracted inability to elect parliamentary leadership and appoint a new cabinet, Ukrainian media reported. "There will be no repeat elections! It is a too expensive pleasure for the country and an inadequate price for the ambitions of some politicians," Yushchenko noted. He said Ukraine recently marked the 10th anniversary of the promulgation of its constitution without a Constitutional Court, a functioning parliament, and a new cabinet. "The responsibility for this lies exclusively with deputies of the new Verkhovna Rada and the leaders of parties and blocs, whose short-sighted position has led to a blockade of the parliament's work," Yushchenko added. Yushchenko urged the newly created ruling coalition of the Yuliya Tymoshenko Bloc, Our Ukraine, and the Socialist Party to discuss the current parliamentary impasse with the opposition -- the Party of Regions led by former Prime Minister Viktor Yanukovych and the Communist Party. A planned round of such talks misfired in Kyiv on July 3 after Yanukovych failed to show up and the ruling coalition refused to discuss the parliamentary crisis without him. Party of Regions deputies have been blocking the parliamentary session hall for the past week (see "RFE/RL Newsline," June 30, 2006). JM

GAS PRICE FOR UKRAINE REMAINS UNCHANGED FOR THREE MORE MONTHS. Prime Minister Yuriy Yekhanurov said at a cabinet meeting on June 30 that the price of gas imported by Ukraine will remain unchanged in the third quarter of 2006, Ukrainian and Russian media reported. "Our industry can operate in a calm fashion. As for the fourth quarter, we will work further," Yekhanurov said, noting that a deal to this effect has been reached in talks between UkrgazEnergo and RosUkrEnergo, firms acting as intermediaries to supply Russian and Central Asian gas to Ukraine. In January, Gazprom and Naftohaz Ukrayiny signed a 2006 gas-supply contract whereby Ukraine undertook to pay $95 per 1,000 cubic meters of a Russian-Central Asian gas mix. The price set in that contract was valid only for the first six months of 2006. Meanwhile, gas prices for Ukrainian individual consumers have gone up by some 85 percent as of July 1. JM