Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko heads for talks in Moscow on Wednesday, including a meeting with Kremlin leader Vladimir Putin, Reuters quoted her office as saying, a week after Ukraine clinched a deal to avoid a cut in Russian gas supplies. Gas rows between Ukraine and Russia, which supplies a quarter of Europe's gas needs, have been a big issue since a dispute between the two states disrupted export in January 2006. The government press service said Tymoshenko's programme during the two-day visit included a meeting with the Russian president as well as with Prime Minister Viktor Zubkov. There was no immediate confirmation from the Kremlin. Ukrainian President Viktor Yushchenko met Putin last week and clinched a last-minute deal to settle payment of Ukrainian arrears for gas supplies and, over time, to eliminate intermediaries in the gas trade. Tymoshenko stood alongside President Viktor Yushchenko in the 2004 pro-Western "Orange Revolution" that swept him to power but was fired seven months after her appointment as premier. She returned to the job last December after a snap election. State gas and oil company Naftogaz said its chairman, Oleh Dubyna, would head a delegation accompanying the premier to discuss debts and details of gas shipment and distribution. Naftogaz said on Wednesday it had paid a second tranche of arrears of $178 million. Russian gas export monopoly Gazprom puts the total at $1.5 billion. Tymoshenko hailed last week's deal as a "great victory" for Ukraine and said it would eliminate "shadowy schemes." Yushchenko is due back in Moscow this week for a summit of leaders of ex-Soviet states. Russian and Ukrainian state energy firms have produced conflicting statements following the agreement, which means final details have yet to be agreed.
