RUSSIAN-UKRAINIAN OIL TRANSIT TALKS COLLAPSE.

Another round of negotiations on transit tariffs for Russian oil through Ukraine’s Druzhba pipeline broke down yesterday in Kiev. Russia’s Fuel and Power Ministry initially accepted, then repudiated a deal on a three-tiered tariff pegged to the amounts of oil pumped. The oil flow to Central Europe is not immediately affected because Russia’s oil companies, unlike the government, have accepted Ukraine’s higher tariff since January. (Reuter, March 21)

Moscow Rejects Criticism on Chechnya.