Russia Ukraine Gas
Russian gas giant CEO Alexei Miller, Slovakian Prime Minister Robert Fico and Bulgarian Prime Minister Sergei Stanishev, from left, discuss the situ...
Russian gas giant CEO Alexei Miller, Slovakian Prime Minister Robert Fico and Bulgarian Prime Minister Sergei Stanishev, from left, discuss the situation looking at the gas transit map, unseen, in the main control room in Gazprom headquarter in Moscow, Russia, Wednesday, Jan. 14, 2009. Leaders of gas-starved European nations pressed Ukraine and Russia to restore supplies as the EU threatened Moscow and Kiev with legal action over a dispute that has deepened the chill of a bitter winter across much of the continent. (AP Photo/Ivan Sekretarev)
APTOPIX Russia Ukraine Gas
Russian gas giant CEO Alexei Miller, Slovakian Prime Minister Robert Fico and Bulgarian Prime Minister Sergei Stanishev, from left, look at the gas t...
Russian gas giant CEO Alexei Miller, Slovakian Prime Minister Robert Fico and Bulgarian Prime Minister Sergei Stanishev, from left, look at the gas transit map, unseen, in the main control room in Gazprom headquarter in Moscow, Russia, Wednesday, Jan. 14, 2009. Leaders of gas-starved European nations pressed Ukraine and Russia to restore supplies as the EU threatened Moscow and Kiev with legal action over a dispute that has deepened the chill of a bitter winter across much of the continent. (AP Photo/Ivan Sekretarev)
Ukraine Russia Gas
Ukrainian protesters at the Russian Embassy in the Ukrainian capital, Kiev, Wednesday, Jan. 14, 2009, hold a poster depicting Russian Prime Minister ...
Ukrainian protesters at the Russian Embassy in the Ukrainian capital, Kiev, Wednesday, Jan. 14, 2009, hold a poster depicting Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin with his tongue out and a comment reading "Liars have always had their tongues cut out" during a protest on the Russian-Ukrainian dispute over natural gas supplies. ( AP Photo/Sergei Chuzavkov)
Russia Ukraine Gas
A logo of Russian gas giant Gazprom is seen reflected in a mirror, bottom, as a man walks up the staircase in Gazprom headquarter in Moscow, Russia, ...
A logo of Russian gas giant Gazprom is seen reflected in a mirror, bottom, as a man walks up the staircase in Gazprom headquarter in Moscow, Russia, Wednesday, Jan. 14, 2009. Leaders of gas-starved European nations pressed Ukraine and Russia to restore supplies as the EU threatened Moscow and Kiev with legal action over a dispute that has deepened the chill of a bitter winter across much of the continent. (AP Photo/Ivan Sekretarev, pool)
Russia Ukraine Gas
The logo of Russian gas giant Gazprom is seen reflected in a window as residential buildings are seen from the Gazprom headquarter in Moscow, Russia,...
The logo of Russian gas giant Gazprom is seen reflected in a window as residential buildings are seen from the Gazprom headquarter in Moscow, Russia, Wednesday, Jan. 14, 2009. Leaders of gas-starved European nations pressed Ukraine and Russia to restore supplies as the EU threatened Moscow and Kiev with legal action over a dispute that has deepened the chill of a bitter winter across much of the continent. (AP Photo/Ivan Sekretarev, pool)
Ukraine Russia Gas
Russian gas monopoly Gazprom Head Alexei Miller and Prime Minister Vladimir Putin, right, seen at a meeting with Prime Ministers of Slovakia, Moldova...
Russian gas monopoly Gazprom Head Alexei Miller and Prime Minister Vladimir Putin, right, seen at a meeting with Prime Ministers of Slovakia, Moldova and Bulgaria at Meiendorf Castle outside Moscow, Wednesday, Jan. 14, 2009. Leaders of gas-starved European nations pressed Ukraine and Russia to restore supplies immediately Wednesday as the EU threatened both with legal action for ripping apart the continent's winter heating plans. (AP Photo/Grigory Dukor, Pool)
Ukraine Russia Gas
From left, Prime Minister Vladimir Putin, President Dmitry Medvedev and Energy Minister Sergei Shmatko seen at a meeting with Prime Ministers of Slov...
From left, Prime Minister Vladimir Putin, President Dmitry Medvedev and Energy Minister Sergei Shmatko seen at a meeting with Prime Ministers of Slovakia, Moldova and Bulgaria at Meiendorf Castle outside Moscow, Wednesday, Jan. 14, 2009. Leaders of gas-starved European nations pressed Ukraine and Russia to restore supplies immediately Wednesday as the EU threatened both with legal action for ripping apart the continent's winter heating plans. (AP Photo/Grigory Dukor, Pool)
CORRECTION Ukraine Russia Gas
Oleh Dubina, the head of Ukrainian state energy firm Naftogaz, speaks during a news conference in Kiev, Ukraine, Wednesday, Jan. 14, 2009. Ukraine's...
Oleh Dubina, the head of Ukrainian state energy firm Naftogaz, speaks during a news conference in Kiev, Ukraine, Wednesday, Jan. 14, 2009. Ukraine's natural gas company said for a second straight day that it would not send Russian gas along to Europe, citing what it claimed were onerous conditions set by Russia's gas monopoly Gazprom. (AP Photo/Efrem Lukatsky)
Ukraine Russia Gas
Ukrainian activists burn a caracture of Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin in Kiev, Ukraine, Thursday, Jan. 15, 2009. A gas dispute between Russia...
Ukrainian activists burn a caracture of Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin in Kiev, Ukraine, Thursday, Jan. 15, 2009. A gas dispute between Russia and Ukraine dragged on for more than two weeks, with Europe affected by a cut off of Russian natural gas via Ukraine. (AP Photo/Sergei Chuzavkov)
ADDITION Russia Ukraine Gas
Gerald Linke, right, Head of Monitoring Experts Mission of EU tours Russia's Pisarevka, gas pumping station, on Thursday, Jan. 15, 2009. Ukraine's P...
Gerald Linke, right, Head of Monitoring Experts Mission of EU tours Russia's Pisarevka, gas pumping station, on Thursday, Jan. 15, 2009. Ukraine's Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko will travel to Moscow Saturday for talks with Putin on solving the gas dispute, her office said Thursday. There was no immediate confirmation from Russia. (AP Photo / Svetlana Kozlenko)
MOLDOVA UKRAINE RUSSIA GAS
Residents ride in a frigid bus in Chisinau, Moldova Thursday Jan. 15, 2009. The Ukrainian-Russian dispute that has left Europe without most of its Ru...
Residents ride in a frigid bus in Chisinau, Moldova Thursday Jan. 15, 2009. The Ukrainian-Russian dispute that has left Europe without most of its Russian gas supplies since January 6 dragged on into its ninth day Thursday. (AP Photo/John McConnico)
Croatia Gas
Workers saw logs to sell as firewood for heating, in Zagreb, Croatia, Thursday, Jan. 15, 2009. Ukraine rejected Russia's latest request to pipe natur...
Workers saw logs to sell as firewood for heating, in Zagreb, Croatia, Thursday, Jan. 15, 2009. Ukraine rejected Russia's latest request to pipe natural gas west to increasingly frustrated EU consumers on Thursday, deepening the bitter economic and political dispute that has paralyzed energy shipments to Europe. (AP Photo/Darko Bandic)
Croatia Gas
A worker saws firewood to sell for heating, in Zagreb, Croatia, Thursday, Jan. 15, 2009. Ukraine rejected Russia's latest request to pipe natural gas...
A worker saws firewood to sell for heating, in Zagreb, Croatia, Thursday, Jan. 15, 2009. Ukraine rejected Russia's latest request to pipe natural gas west to increasingly frustrated EU consumers on Thursday, deepening the bitter economic and political dispute that has paralyzed energy shipments to Europe. (AP Photo/Darko Bandic)
Croatia Gas
A worker walks through a quiet workplace at a battery producing factory that stopped production due to gas shortages, in Zagreb, Croatia, Thursday, J...
A worker walks through a quiet workplace at a battery producing factory that stopped production due to gas shortages, in Zagreb, Croatia, Thursday, Jan. 15, 2009. Ukraine rejected Russia's latest request to pipe natural gas west to increasingly frustrated EU consumers on Thursday, deepening the bitter economic and political dispute that has paralyzed energy shipments to Europe. (AP Photo / Darko Bandic)
European nations shivering amid a cutoff of Russian natural gas should form a consortium to purchase from Russia the fuel that is needed to pump the gas west though Ukraine's pipelines, Prime Minister Vladimir Putin suggested Thursday.
The proposal was a unique suggestion for solving the nine-day crisis that has cut off nearly all gas to some countries and sparked anger in European capitals and homes. But it addresses only one of the many complex and contentious issues dividing Russia, the gas supplier, and Ukraine, the pipeline owner.
Europe gets about one-quarter of all its gas from Russia, with 80 percent of that coming via pipelines that cross Ukraine. Russia stopped selling gas to Ukraine for domestic use on Jan. 1 because Kiev refused Moscow's price demands. Russia then accused Ukraine of siphoning off Europe-bound gas and stopped sending any into Ukrainian pipelines on Jan. 7.
After reaching a European Union-brokered deal on monitoring gas flows, Russia turned on the taps on Tuesday, but little or none of that gas has reached Europe. Ukraine says Russia is demanding the gas go by a route that would force Ukraine to cut off gas being shipped from its own reserves to domestic users.
Ukraine is also demanding that Russia supply the so-called "technical gas" needed to power compressors that push Europe-bound gas farther down the pipelines. Previously, Russia insisted that Ukraine pay for that gas, or accused it of "stealing" that technical gas.
Putin, in a meeting with the head of Italian gas concern ENI, proposed that a European consortium buy the technical gas from Russian gas monopoly Gazprom. ENI head Paolo Scaroni characterized the proposal as "constructive," according to Russian news agencies, but other countries' reactions were not immediately known.
"We have to help our Ukrainian friends while they are incapable of ensuring the transit, but ... Russia is not ready to take all the risks," Putin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters in a conference call.
Peskov said the consortium would give the technical gas an "international character" that would discourage Ukraine from stealing it. He also said Ukraine ultimately would have to pay for the gas, but that prices have not been discussed.
Ukraine has denied all charges of stealing, saying it was Russia's responsibility to push the gas to Europe.
Russia's demand that Ukraine pay $450 per 1,000 cubic meters of gas _ more than twice what it paid last year _ is one of the main issues in the dispute.
