KIEV HAS SOME LEVERAGE IN GAS TRADE WITH RUSSIA.

Russia’s Gazprom has agreed to sell 23 billion cubic meters of natural gas to Ukraine in 1997, and to allow the transit of up to 25 billion cubic meters of gas from Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan to Ukraine through Russian pipelines. Gazprom in turn plans to export 130 billion cubic meters of Russian gas through Ukrainian pipelines to Central and Western Europe in 1997. Ukraine’s transit fees are $1.75 per 1,000 cubic meters for each 100 kilometers. Gazprom will pay for the transit with additional gas deliveries to Ukraine amounting to 30 billion cubic meters in the course of 1997, on top of the 23 billion to be sold to Kiev. (Interfax-Ukraine, January 10).

Ukraine has similarly prevailed over Russian oil companies in setting transit fees for Russian oil exports to the West. Moscow contemplates laying pipelines across Belarus as an alternative to transit via Ukraine.

Ukraine Redoubles Efforts to Formalize Cooperation With NATO.