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prolonged for October "if a new gas price is not agreed upon with international partners," the minister told journalists.
As of September, gas prices for households are about UAH7 per cubic meter including VAT, according to supply companies, which is half the price charged by Naftogaz for industrial consumers. Ukraine's cabinet committed to the IMF in March 2017 to set household prices close to import parity level, but has since postponed any hikes and kept prices flat.
2.2 Kremlin imposes sanctions on Ukraine, hopes to sway oligarchs
The Russian government is considering prohibiting imports of Ukrainians goods and could be planning to destabalise the country to persuade the local oligarchs to refuse to accept the results if they are not in Russia’s favour.
The sanctions are part of Russia’s latest round of sanctions to be imposed on its western neighbour, Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev said on October 23, according to the TASS news agency.
Among the individuals to be targeted are well-known Ukrainian citizens who have done damage to Russia, he said. “The matter involves blocking their assets that enter the territory of the Russian Federation, that is, prohibiting engaging in any activity with them,” Medvedev said, adding that it could also include restricting transferring funds out of sources located on Russian territory.
The new sanctions will target Ukraine’s economy, in addition to particular citizens, said on October 23 Dmitry Peskov, spokesman for Russian President Putin, as reported by TASS. The sanctions won’t target Ukrainian citizens as a whole, he said. “The Ukrainian people were and remain Russia’s brotherly people, with the exception of unsuccessful representatives of this people, who are stuck in nationalist and ultranationalist attitudes,” he said.
Russia will use all its available levers of influence and pressure on Ukraine to destabilize the situation in the country ahead of the 2019 presidential and parliamentary elections, Foreign Minister Pavlo Klimkin said on October 23 during a visit to Warsaw. He added that Russia is fully trying to destabilizing the situation in the Azov Sea.
Analysts say that these sanctions will be aimed at influencing Ukraine’s oligarchs in order to pressure them to sway the elections in Russia’s favour, whether through their influence on politicians or the mass media. The Russian government could target the industries of kingpins such as Rinat Akhmetov and Victor Pinchuk, offering to remove all sanctions - including any in this round - once it gains favourable results in the October parliamentary vote. In turn, they will be expected to support Russian-oriented parties and candidates that promote Kremlin narratives, including promises for an economic rebound in Ukraine’s southeastern regions if relations with Russia are renewed.
In a more extreme scenario, the Kremlin could ask for parties and politicians controlled by these oligarchs to refuse to recognize the results of the elections (regardless if they were legitimate). City and regional (oblast) councils refusing to recognize election results, particularly in the southeastern regions, could set the stage for the disintegration of Ukrainian statehood. The Kremlin would
8 UKRAINE Country Report November 2018 www.intellinews.com