The presidents of Russia and Ukraine will discuss the mooted merger of Russian energy giant Gazprom and Ukraine's Naftogaz at their talks next week, the chief of Dmitry Medvedev's administration said on Friday.
Medvedev is due in Ukraine on May 17 for his second visit since Viktor Yanukovych was elected president in February. The Ukrainian president has twice visited Russia as the two former Soviet neighbors have remade their relations over the past three months.
Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin first put forward the idea of a Gazprom-Naftogaz merger at the end of April, after Moscow and Kiev agreed an extension to Russia's lease on a key naval base in Ukraine in exchange for discounted prices for Russian gas. The Russian government's press service later said Moscow was not proposing a takeover but the creation of a new company.
Russian presidential administration head Sergei Naryshkin said the Gazprom-Naftogaz merger was more of a priority for Russia than creating a gas consortium with European partners.
"Consultations were held yesterday in Moscow with the participation of Ukrainian Energy Minister Yury Boyko," he said. "It's a complicated topic - somebody would hardly suggest an agreement on such a complicated issue could be reached quickly. It needs a series of consultations, to be seriously worked through, and it is in process."
MOSCOW, May 14 (RIA Novosti)
