President Petro Poroshenko had a meeting with Head of NJSC Naftogaz of Ukraine Andriy Kobolyev who reported on the situation with compulsory fulfillment of the decision made by the Stockholm Arbitration in favor of NJSC Naftogaz of Ukraine, Gazprom’s appeal of that decision and Ukraine’s position of defense.
According to Andriy Kobolyev, even though Gazprom will try to appeal the decision of the Stockholm Arbitration in the court of Sweden, it does not suspend the decision already adopted. “It remains in force and we will comply with it,” the Head of Naftogaz noted. He added: “The only reason Russian monopolist found to appeal is an alleged linguistic expertise they are going to submit as an evidence. We remember well the expertise in such cases like “Almaz-Antey” - that the plane wasn’t shot down and so on. It seems to me Russians are playing a PR game here”.
The Head of NJSC Naftogaz informed that the debt to Gazprom in the amount of 2 billion dollars for gas supplied in 2013-2015 has already been written off from 4.6 billion dollars won by Ukraine. “It is important to emphasize that this gas and this sum doesn’t include a single cubic meter of gas supplied illegally by Gazprom to the territory of Donetsk and Luhansk. We didn’t recognize this debt and the court supported our position,” he stressed.
The Head of State says that the Russian side does not issue bills for that, and in fact the decision of the court came into force and is being implemented. "So, the decision came into force. The position of Gazprom is that they do not recognize this decision of the tribunal. I think that the decision of the court still has a higher power than the position of the managers of Gazprom,” Andriy Kobolyev noted.
At the same time, the Head of NJSC Naftogaz emphasized that the process of compulsory recovery of 2.6 billion dollars had moved into a practical plane - today, the encumbrance of Gazprom shares and other assets in Europe has begun.
The President stressed: "I know that these processes have begun already in Switzerland, England, Netherlands. My clear instruction is that we should not stop on these three countries, so that today we will make every effort to ensure the inflow of these funds in Ukraine".
“The second position is assets. I do not exclude those including the shares of the Nord Stream, Nord Stream 2 and cash, which have sound liquidity and will quickly ensure the implementation of the decisions," he added.
The Head of State once again stressed that this situation demonstrates the "reliability" of Russia as a supplier of gas to Europe. "Stockholm arbitration is the basic arbitration in all contracts of Gazprom. How can gas consumers feel today when Gazprom refuses to comply with this arbitration. This is another confirmation of the unreliability of Gazprom. However, this will not prevent Ukraine and Ukrainians, NJSC Naftogaz from mobilizing these funds in the near future in the budget of the NJSC and ensuring future reliable functioning of the fuel and energy complex," Petro Poroshenko stressed.
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