Russia has no choice over gas prices: Foreign Minister

Russia's Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov has expanded on the reason for a gas prices to Ukraine to almost double next year.

President Medvedev announced the move during meetings with CIS leaders on Friday.

“The Central Asian countries have already announced that as of January 2009 they will be selling gas at European prices which would mean a very considerable increase of the gas prices for Ukraine and President Yuschenko basically said that the sooner the market prices are introduced – the better is for the economy and this was also mentioned by President Medvedev,” Lavrov said.