Russian Energy Minister Aleksandr Novak says he got the assurances from the European Commission Vice President Maroš Šefčovič that Ukraine will not give the go-ahead to its 172bn hryvnia fine on Gazprom.
"We have drawn the attention to the European Commission to the illegal decision of Kyiv Economic Court in favor of the AMC to impose a fine on" Gazprom "in the amount of 6.6bn dollars This is all nonsense, absolutely unprecedented," Novak said on 9 December in a televised interview.
"Mr. Šefčovič has assured us that he had talked with the Prime Minister of Ukraine, who confirmed that Kyiv will take no action to implement the decision of the Economic Court of Kyiv toward the transported gas," he said.
It was only verbal assurances and they still need to be secured legally, Novak added.
Earlier Novak said that the Kyiv court ruling poses “new risks for gas transit to European customers since Ukraine can adopt the [decree on] imposition of penalties corresponding to the fine.”
The Economic Court of Kyiv on December 5 ruled on the forced recovery of almost 172bn hryvnia in anti-monopoly fine on the Russian gas monopoly Gazprom.
The amount includes 85.966bn hryvnia fine for the abuse of monopoly position in the market of natural gas transit through the Ukrainian gas transport system, and 85.966bn hryvnia penalties for the late payment of the fine.
The deadline for the AMCU ruling ended on May 4, 2016).