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West's press hysteria in Ukraine gas spat was pressure - Putin

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MOSCOW, July 6 (RIA Novosti) - President Vladimir Putin Thursday said Western media hysteria over a gas pricing spat between Russia and Ukraine was an attempt to apply political pressure on Russia.

Russia has since been subjected to increasing criticism of its use of mineral reserves - U.S. Vice President Dick Cheney accused it of using energy to blackmail other states in a vitriolic attack in May - but senior officials in Moscow have dismissed the notion.

"Indeed, the hysteria kicked up in the media primarily in European countries and North America was an attempt to exert political pressure, not on Ukraine, but on Russia," Putin said during a Web cast.

"Somebody wants to force us to sell gas for artificially low prices," he said. "That is over - everyone should play an equal price."

Russia has been selling gas to ex-Soviet states for considerably lower prices than Europe for the last 15 years and is now looking to revise gas contracts and introduce market prices. A bitter dispute with Ukraine earlier this year over price increases for natural gas has led to suspension of gas supplies to the country.

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