Russia

Russian President Vladimir Putin and his Ukrainian counterpart Viktor Yushchenko have reached an agreement over the payment of Kiev’s unpaid gas bill. At a meeting in Moscow Yushchenko said that starting on Feb. 14 Ukraine would start paying more than a billion euros in debts to the Russian state gas monopoly Gazprom. The firm had threatened to shut off gas supplies to Ukraine if it didn’t receive payment by the end of Feb. 12. The two countries had a similar dispute over the price of gas in January 2006. (Radio Netherlands)