putin-orders-suspension-of-free-trade-zone-with-ukraine-as-kyiv-says-moscow …
Moscow/Kyiv: President Vladimir Putin on Wednesday ordered his government to suspend Russia’s free trade zone with Ukraine from January 1, making good on Moscow’s threats to Kyiv which seeks closer ties with the European Union.
Russia annexed Ukraine’s Crimean peninusula last year and is accused by Kyiv of fomenting a conflict with pro-Moscow separatists in the east of the country. It has staunchly opposed plans to launch an EU-Ukraine free trade pact.
Senior Russian officials said this month Moscow would probably have to penalise Ukrainian imports and impose a non-preferential trade regime if Kyiv’s planned free trade pact with Europe went ahead on January 1.
Putin’s decision to suspend a 2011 free trade treaty with Ukraine was set out in a decree which cited “extraordinary circumstances affecting the interests and economic security” of Russia.
The decree made no mention of how long the free trade regime would be suspended.
There was no immediate reaction from Kyiv, where the authorities have previously said there will be no amendments to the free trade agreement with the EU and it will come into force on January 1 regardless of any action by Russia.
Russia says the Ukraine-EU deal could lead to a flood of European imports across its own borders and damage the competitiveness of Russian exports to Ukraine.
Meanwhile, Ukraine accused Russia on Wednesday of looting two of its oil rigs after Crimea-based oil and gas firm Chornomornaftogaz moved the equipment off the coast of the annexed peninsula into Russian waters.
The loss of Crimea peninsula’s valuable energy assets has been a particular sore point for cash-strapped Kyiv given a long-running energy dispute between the two countries.
On Monday Chornomornaftogaz said it had moved the two rigs, worth 25 billion roubles ($357 million), into Russian territorial waters due to the “the complicated international situation (and) risk of losing vital assets.”
While Ukraine had already lost control of the rigs following Crimea’s annexation, it described their recent relocation as “large-scale looting”.
“The Ukrainian Foreign Ministry expresses its deep indignation in connection with the actions of Russia that violate international law, once again aimed at violating the sovereign rights of Ukraine,” the ministry said in a statement.
Ukrainian state-run energy firm Naftogaz, which owned 100 per cent of Chornomornaftogaz, repeated on Wednesday that it would seek compensation from Russia in international courts for its annexed Crimean oil and gas assets, which it said were worth $15.7 billion.
New rows have erupted between Russia and Ukraine over Crimea in recent weeks after saboteurs in Ukraine blew up power lines to the peninsula. Delayed repairs to the pylons on the part of Kyiv authorities and the suspension of trade links with Crimea prompted Russia to suspend coal exports to Ukraine.