Russia reluctant to sell gas in transit through Belarus, Ukraine
"We do not wish to sell gas in transit through countries which will steal it or simply will not be paying for it," Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov told BBC on December 12, reports the Russian news agency Ria-Novosti.
He noted that "that's why we are building ports which will allow us to export energy resources directly to European consumers". Lavrov stressed that the transit countries were responsible for the disruption of gas supplies last year.
"Ukraine violated contract conditions that it had signed. The same thing happened with Belarus. In the both cases, we did not violate any of our obligations as regards these two countries and the Western nations".
Russia has a legitimate right to trade with the other countries without middlemen, Lavrov said.
