Kiev, February 6:

An agreement between Russia and Ukraine ending a recent gas price war between the two neighbours has attracted fresh criticism from analysts who doubt it holds the guarantees president Viktor Yushchenko’s government has claimed.

A new round of secretive talks between Russian and Ukrainian officials that ended on Thursday has done nothing to reassure those who fear further instability after Moscow abruptly cut supplies in a ‘gas war’ in January. “The Ukrainians can’t be considered a nation — they have allowed a group of adventurers to conclude, doubtful agreements with doubtful persons,” the online newspaper Ukrainska Pravda reported.

The three-day long cut of gas supplies to this ex-Soviet nation at the start of January sparked debate across Europe as knock-on disruption was felt in several European countries for which Ukraine is a gas transit route. Since then much attention has been paid here to RosUkrEnergo, a joint venture half owned by Russia’s Gazprom energy giant and half owned by Austria’s Raiffeisen Bank on behalf of unidentified investors.

Under an agreement that at least provisionally resolved last month’s stand-off, RosUkrEnergo will be responsible for all Ukraine’s gas imports from both Russia and ex-Soviet Central Asia. But suspicions about the deal mounted as a new joint venture was set up at the latest talks in Kiev: UkrgazEnergo.

The company is jointly owned by Gazprom and Uk-rainian utility Naftogaz and will be responsible for selli-ng gas on the Ukrainian ma-rket once it has been ship-ped in by RosUkrEnergo.

Following Thursday’s talks, Ukrainian officials said the price agreed in January for gas imports — $95 per 1,000 cubic metres — would remain in force for five years. “It’s the lowest price among all the former Soviet republics with the exception of Belarus,” said Naftogaz, insisting that only unforeseen circumstances could prompt a price revision within five years.

Yushchenko, who has been embroiled in a political stand-off with parliament over the deal, has insisted the deal is the best possible compromise, in which ‘neither party lost’. But Russian newspapers have noted the studious silence mainted by their countries’ officials at the close of Thursday’s meeting on how long the current price-tag would remain in place.

The Russian side earlier said the $95 rate only applied until July 1, after which the price could

vary according to changes in the price of gas from Russia and Central Asia. Supplies from Central Asia — particularly Turkmenistan, but also Uzbekistan and Kazakhstan — are key to

the deal as Russian gas will be mixed with cheaper Central Asian gas.

“Uzbekistan already increased from January 1 the price it charges Russia for gas from $42 to $60. Turkmenistan is ready to raise its prices too,” said an energy expert at Kiev’s Razumkov research centre, Volodymyr Saprykin, “It’s absolutely clear the price of $95 can’t remain.”

There was agreement from the director of the Centre for Energy Research, Kostyantin Borodin, “In the second half of 2006 prices for Ukraine will increase,” he said, predicting however a rise of not more than 10 per cent.