Ukraine's president heads to Moscow to discuss gas

MOSCOW

Ukraine's new president Viktor Yanukovych has arrived in Moscow to meet with his Russian counterpart Dmitry Medvedev in hopes of getting Russia to cut gas prices for his country.

Yanukovych, who was sworn in last week, is anxious to review the 2009 gas deal with Moscow that bound Ukraine to pay European gas prices, which are much higher than Ukraine previously paid.

During his election campaign, the Kremlin-friendly hopeful said he would offer Russia a role in managing Ukraine's pipeline system.

Russia's gas monopoly Gazprom said earlier this week, however, that it had received no such offer yet. It had said earlier that it saw no reason to review the deal.

The Izvestia daily quoted Yanukovych's ally Anatoly Kinakh, who is tipped to become Ukraine's next fuel and energy minister, as saying Friday that Ukraine wants to see gas prices cut by one-third.

Russia and Ukraine signed the gas deal in January 2009 after a bitter standoff that left thousands of homes across Europe without heat in the dead of winter.

Relations between the ex-Soviet neighbors were frosty under Yanukovych's pro-Western predecessor, Viktor Yushchenko, who sought to bring Ukraine into NATO and the European Union.

European Union nations receive one fifth of their gas from Russia, most of it via pipelines crossing Ukraine.