Moroz Mediates with Putin and Fradkov

Mikhail Fradkov, Russia’s prime minister, will visit Kiev sometime next week to meet with his Ukrainian counterpart, Viktor Yanukovich. One of the highlights of Fradkov’s visit will be the announcement of Ukraine’s 2007 gas import price, according to Olexander Moroz, the Ukrainian parliamentary speaker, who met with Fradkov yesterday in Moscow. Moroz said the price had already been agreed but he couldn’t divulge it. Vladimir Putin, the Russian president, said after his meeting with Moroz that he was willing to meet with Ukraine’s president, Viktor Yushchenko, but Putin didn’t mention any timeframe for the meeting, and he added vaguely that “certain agreements in the economic sphere” were needed before relations could improve. Moroz also agreed on a meeting between Ukrainian and Russian MPs in November where he said they would discuss the modernization of Ukrainian energy companies and cooperation in the aircraft industry. Tom Warner: Moroz appears to have tried to carve out a new role for himself as mediator between Yushchenko and Putin, but it’s not clear how much he achieved. The meeting of MPs could give some impetus to the plan being promoted jointly by Ukraine’s government and Russia’s RAO UES to have Ukrainian power plants produce electricity for Russia using gas supplied at Russian domestic prices.