OREANDA-NEWS. September 8, 2011.  The Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Poland Radoslaw Sikorski has said that the European Commission could carry out an audit of the Russian-Ukrainian agreements in the gas sector.

In this connection we would like to recall that the relations between Gazprom and Ukraine’s Naftogaz in matters of Russian natural gas supplies to Ukrainian consumers are governed by the contract for sale and purchase of natural gas in the years 2009-2019, concluded on January 19, 2009. The binding character of the contract for Kyiv is confirmed, inter alia, by Ukraine’s Verkhovna Rada’s ratification of the Russian Federation-Ukraine Agreement of April 21, 2010, whereby the Ukrainian side is granted a discount of up to 100 US dollars off the price set exactly by the contract in force between Gazprom and Naftogaz. The Agreement of April 21, 2010 bears the signature of the current President of Ukraine.

Any attempts to question the above Russian-Ukrainian accords are legally illegitimate.

The utterly clear legal framework of this question does not require any “external audit” and should be grasped by all who are interested in ensuring Europe’s energy security.