NOVO-OGAREVO, June 17 (Itar-Tass) -- Gazprom will not impose a fine on Ukraine for importing a smaller amount of gas, but it hopes that the contracts, now in effect, will be fulfilled, Alexei Miller, head of Gazprom, said at a meeting with Prime Minister Vladimir Putin here on Wednesday. “We regard with understanding the economic situation in Ukraine, we realise it is living through a crisis. In the future we shall not impose fines on our Ukrainian partners,” he said.

Putin expressed hope that “both parties will continue to observe discipline within the framework of the contracts signed.”

“In accordance with your decision, we did not impose fines on Ukraine for the reduction of gas imports. Under the contract, Ukraine was to import almost twice as much as it did,” Miller said. “We have received payments for gas deliveries in May in full amount.”

“We should bear in mind that we have paid for gas transit to Europe to our Ukrainian partners for the whole of 2009, until the beginning of 2010. Actually, we granted a loan to it amounting to 2.2 billion dollars,” Putin remarked. “This is a large sum, which our Ukrainian partners received from Gazprom and actually from Russia.”

“Shaping our relations with Ukraine, we shall proceed from the assumption that the contracts signed should be fulfilled without fail by all the parties concerned,” Miller said.