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on Preventing Corruption,” Krasnosilska said.
Other anti-corruption legislation approved by parliament in October include a bill on ensuring the effectiveness of the institutional mechanism of preventing corruption, said on November 4 Halyna Yanchenko, a People’s Servant MP and deputy head of the anti-corruption committee. “Ukrainian society awaited this decision for two and a half years, but the previous government lacked the political will. The law enabled finally starting the process of resetting the National Agency on Preventing Corruption, which has demonstrated recently its ineffectiveness, unprofessionalism and inability to fulfill its functions,” she said in a column published on the pravda.com.ua news site.
Other October bills include the law on protecting and encouraging revealers of corruption and a bill that sets criminal penalties for MPs voting on behalf of other MPs, Yanchenko said.
2.2 Naftogaz files new claims with the Stockholm Arbitration court
Ukraine's natural gas monopoly Naftogaz has filed new legal claims against Russia's Gazprom with the Arbitration Institute of the Stockholm Chamber of Commerce, because "effectively Gazprom wants the previous Stockholm arbitration decision on the transit contract to be reviewed," according to Naftogaz Executive Officer Yuriy Vitrenko.
"The number of pages in our Statement's core text alone exceeds 500 pages. Attached thereto are three international expert reports designed specifically for that. Also enclosed are witness testimonies and a host of other appendices," Vitrenko wrote on his official Facebook page on November 2. "I will write in more detail about our claims and also why Gazprom's claims are unsubstantiated a while later."
On October 30, Russian President Vladimir Putin called for Gazprom and Naftogaz Ukrainy to drop their legal claims relating to the settlement of a debt problem and the signing of gas transit and delivery contracts.
"This absurd should be ditched and all claims nullified on all sides," news agency Interfax quoted Putin as saying in Hungary. "We are prepared for constructive work, both on gas pumping through Ukraine and on gas supplies to Ukraine, and [we will do so] with a significant reduction of the price, different from the one that Ukrainian consumers of the Russian gas have today." "And that this gas is Russian is no doubt. There are no reverse [flows] there. But never mind, this false reverse. The main thing is that there are obvious benefits for Ukraine and for the end consumer: for utilities, for citizens, and for the economy as a whole," Putin said.
In a phone call with German Chancellor Angela Merkel last week Putin floated the idea of linking the settlement of the arbitration claim of $3bn by Naftogaz on Gazprom with a new gas transit deal. As the Nord Stream 2 construction has been delayed by Denmark’s reluctance to grant construction permits, which the government only granted last week, until around May Russia needs to sign off on a temporary transit deal to send gas via Ukraine for the second part of the winter after the transit deal expires on January 1, 2020. However, Russia is seeking to wriggle out of paying the entire $3bn by apparently trading some of the payment in exchange for improved terms on a transit deal.
6 UKRAINE Country Report December 201 www.intellinews.com
