ST. PETERSBURG, June 10 (RIA Novosti) - Russia backs the principles of the Energy Charter but is concerned that certain important provisions are lacking in the document, the country's finance minister said Saturday.
"Russia has shared and will continue to share the principles of the Energy Charter, but we are not happy with certain things contained in agreements to the Energy Charter," Alexei Kudrin told a news conference after a G8 finance ministers' meeting in St. Petersburg.
First of all, Kudrin said, the charter did not touch upon nuclear power development; Russia as a nuclear energy supplier would like this issue to be addressed in the document.
Also, the minister said, the charter does not mention energy resource transit, which is of particular importance since transit principles have changed, and EU states are no longer transit countries.
Kudrin said that Ukraine, which ratified the charter, was a transit country, but that it siphoned off natural gas from transit pipelines. "Such gas tapping is a violation of the Energy Charter, but somehow the West says nothing about it," he said.
"Russia has not violated the charter," Kudrin said.
