Putin visit leads to progress in gas negotiations

During their meeting yesterday Polish President Aleksander Kwasniewski and his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin set a tentative deadline for solving the natural gas issues that have troubled the two countries' relations in recent months. According to President Kwasniewski, the issue is to be settled by the end of February. Poland wants to purchase Russian gas in a smaller amount than was previously agreed upon. Russian negotiators want Poland to construct a new transit line, the so-called "link", which would go through Belarus and Poland to Slovakia and further to western and southern Europe. The two presidents also discussed the troubled Yamal gas line, the second phase of which has been postponed. (Rzeczpospolita, p. A3) A.Z.