Viktor Yushchenko and Saparmurat Niyazov

UNIAN ARCHIVE Ukrainian President Viktor Yushchenko, left, speaks with his Turkmen counterpart Saparmurat Niyazov during their meeting in Ashkhabat, Turkmenistan, Tuesday, March 22, 2005. Turkmen President Saparmurat Niyazov declared on Tuesday evening, June 21, 2005, that he supposed Ukraine’s interoffsetting settlement of accounts for Turkmen gas to be “unprecedented swindle”. Speaking on Turkmen TV broadcast, Saparmurat Niyazov noted that no cent was received by Turkmenistan for the gas during this year. Almost US$9 mln remains in Ukraine for the same time. Ukraine still owes Turkmenistan US$61.7 mln in goods for 2004 alone and US$500 mln in goods for the first five and a half months of this year as payment for Turkmen natural gas supplies. Head of national joint-stock company Naftogaz-Ukraine Oleksiy Ivchenko noted that an agreement was reached during negotiations in Ashkhabat, according to which the gas price remained the same that in the past year. Photo by Mykola Lazarenko / POOL / UNIAN