KIEV, December 28 (RIA Novosti) - Former Ukrainian Prime Minister Viktor Yanukovych blamed incumbent authorities Wednesday for Kiev's gas price dispute with Russia.
Yanukovych, leader of the country's main opposition party, Regions of Ukraine, accused President Viktor Yushchenko's government of "incompetence" and "irresponsibility" and suggested it may have provoked the conflict deliberately.
Speaking in a television show, Yanukovych urged Yushchenko to focus his energies on settling the gas price row with Moscow.
Yanukovych was defeated in last year's Orange Revolution, which swept Yushchenko to power after hundreds of thousands of people flocked to Ukraine's capital to protest bogus presidential election results that had originally declared the then-prime minister the winner.
