KIEV, Ukraine, June 6 (UPI) -- Moscow is using energy for political leverage amid European efforts to diversify the natural gas transmission sector, a Ukrainian scholar said.
Russian gas company Gazprom cut gas supplies through Ukraine briefly in 2009 following a spat with Kiev over contracts and debt.
Ukraine hosts 80 percent of all Russian gas bound for Europe through its network of Soviet-era pipelines. The 2009 dispute led to European and Russian efforts to pursue alternate transit options.
Valeriy Chaly, a former Ukrainian deputy foreign minister and now director general of a research center in Kiev, told New Europe that Moscow is using "energy as a so-called weapon."
He said that European and Russian efforts to bypass Ukraine aren't necessarily bad for his country, however.
"The problem of Ukraine is not gas supplies from Russia; the problem of Ukraine is energy inefficiency," he said. "We have to change the structure of the Ukrainian economy and it's a difficult task."
Kiev's push to join the European Union, meanwhile, includes efforts to expand and upgrade its gas transmission system to the benefit of the entire region.
"Ukraine is and will remain a very important country for gas transmission," he said.
