Alexander Medvedev, the deputy board chairman and general director of Gazexport, Gazprom's export subsidiary, said: "Our position in Ukraine has a legal base and is aimed at partnership."
He said that $160 per 1,000 cu m of gas, the price Gazprom offered Ukraine, was lower than the real market price.
Medvedev said Russia and Ukraine had so far failed to achieve progress in gas talks, particularly, regarding the terms of Russian gas transit via Ukraine in 2006.
"Transit tariffs and gas prices should correspond to market conditions and European norms," Medvedev said, adding that Ukraine, however, preferred the "old" terms.
"We expect Russia's good-neighborly approach to be taken into account," Medvedev said. "We want to make the first steps toward European standards of payment in gas deals between Russia and Ukraine."
Ukraine has been insisting that Russian gas supplies and transit be continued on the same terms as in 2005, despite earlier top-level agreements to move to European prices and tariffs.
For the past five years, Russia has been selling natural gas to Ukraine for $50 against the reference price of $80. Over this period, European gas prices have nearly doubled. Now the market net back price for Ukraine is estimated at $160.
