FX.co ★ Russia’s Gazprom pays debts and signs another transit deal with Ukraine

The Russian energy giant Gazprom sometimes seems to be inconsistent in its statements and actions. Thus, in 2015, Alexander Medvedev, Deputy Chairman of the Management Committee of Gazprom, was very straight-forward when talking about the new gas transition agreement with Ukraine. “When the transit contract with Ukraine finishes in 2019, under no circumstances, there will be an extension or conclusion of the new one. We are done with this issue completely,” he said. In 2018, after the ongoing legal dispute with the Ukrainian company Naftogaz, Gazprom’s Deputy Head of the Legal Department Sergey Kuznets announced that the company did not intend to execute the decision of the Stockholm Arbitration to pay Naftogaz $2.56 billion. However, today, in 2020 Gazprom has fully paid its debts to Naftogaz and even signed another 5-year gas transit agreement with Ukraine. Obviously, Russian Gazprom does not perceive this fact as a defeat, but rather as an act of a responsible partnership.