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Eastern Europe
January 25, 2019 www.intellinews.com I Page 18
all the regions of Ukraine that makes her a formidable opponent.
However, Tymoshenko is still dealing with the leg- acy of that cool reception on Maidan. Then as now the protestors were disappointed with the failure of the revolutionary government to deliver on the promise of a better Ukraine. As prime minister under president Viktor Yushchenko, Tymoshenko was tarred with the same brush. Today not only does she lead the popularity polls, but she also leads, together with Poroshenko, the rankings of “won’t vote for them under any circumstances.”
It is the strength of these disappointments that will make the Ukrainian presidential race extremely unpredictable.
Trilateral gas contract talks between Gazprom, Naftogaz and EU fail
bne IntelliNews
Trilateral negotiations on the thorny issue of renewing Ukraine’s gas transit deal to pass Russian gas to its EU customers after the current contract expires at the end of the year held on January 21 failed to produce any results, Naftogaz COO Yuriy Vitrenko said on his Facebook page.
The deal signed by former Ukrainian prime minister Yulia Tymoshenko in 2009 runs out at the end of this year, while Russia’s Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline extension north of Ukraine that will allow Gazprom to bypass Ukraine entirely is due to come online at the start of 2020. Ukraine stands to lose some $3bn in transit fees if a deal
In third place is Volodymyr Zelenskiy, a comedian who once played the country's president in a TV show but has promised to refresh Ukraine's politi- cal system. Zelenskiy’s chances of challenging Tymoshenko in the second round, if no candidate can clear a 50% hurdle for a first round victory, are diminishing after an investigation found he is still earning money from media companies and royalties paid to him from Russia.
The Central Election Commission (CEC) has now registered 13 candidates for the presidential elections in Ukraine due to be held on March 31. Over 30 politicians have stated an interested in competing for the job.
Ukraine is struggling to persuade Gazprom's CEO Alexei Miller to sign a new gas transit deal when the current one expires.
cannot be struck – money it can currently ill afford to forego.
Gazprom simply offered to prolong the existing contracts signed in 2009, but on the condition of “the recovery of the balance in relationships” between Naftogaz and Gazprom.
That recovery assumes Naftogaz dropping the award made by the Stockholm arbitration court in February 2018 that required Gazprom to pay compensation of $2.6bn to Naftogaz.
In its turn, Naftogaz insists that “recovery of