Swedish foreign minister accuses Moscow of blackmailing Kyiv with gas price

KYIV, January 5 /UKRINFORM/. Swedish Foreign Minister Carl Bildt has accused Russia of using economic blackmail against Ukraine, BBC Russian has reported.

"It's obvious here that Russia is using heavy economic blackmail to force Ukraine to change its political course," he wrote on his page on Twitter.

The reason for this statement was a statement made by Director of the Russian Foreign Ministry's Economic Cooperation Department Alexander Gorban in an interview with Interfax on January 1.

He said that Moscow was not going to reduce the price of natural gas for Ukraine, as the latter has to decide whether it joins the EU or participates in the Customs Union of Russia, Belarus and Kazakhstan and automatically receives a lower price.

The Ukrainian Foreign Ministry described this statement by the Russian diplomat as insulting.