MOSCOW, Oct 2: Russian gas monopoly Gazprom warned on Tuesday it would cut gas supplies to Ukraine, which transports 80 per cent of Russian gas supplies to western Europe, if Kiev did not pay over a billion dollars in debt this month. The warning revived a longstanding dispute over gas supplies that led Russia to turn off the taps to Ukraine in January 2006, provoking supply shortfalls in western Europe and doubts about Russia’s reliability as an energy provider.

“If the debt is not settled in October, Gazprom will be forced to begin to cut natural gas supplies to Ukrainian consumers,” the state-run company said in a statement, putting the amount of debt at $1.3 billion.

Ukrainian energy company Naftogaz, Gazprom’s counterpart, has expressed bewilderment at the warning.

“We don’t understand what Gazprom means. We don’t understand where (the sum) came from,” spokesman Oleksy Fyodorov told AFP. “We hope that by tomorrow, at least, we’ll understand what they’re talking about and define our position.”

The dispute came as Ukraine approached the end of a cliffhanger vote count after parliamentary elections on Sunday. The vote pits the pro-Western parties of President Viktor Yushchenko and opposition leader Yulia Tymoshenko against Moscow-backed prime minister Viktor Yanukovych.

The Ukrainian edition of Russian daily newspaper Kommersant reported on the eve of the elections that Russia could sharply raise gas prices to its ex-Soviet neighbour if the elections led to a pro-Western government, citing a “highly placed” anonymous source.

The Russian ambassador to Kiev, Viktor Chernomyrdin, later told AFP that the choice of the new government was “an internal matter for Ukraine.”—AFP