MOSCOW. Nov 30 (Interfax-AVN) - Russia is against any revision of rental agreements for its Black Sea Fleet base in Ukraine and an increase in prices for the transit of Russian natural gas through Ukraine is not a way of raising money for this rent, Russian Defense Minister Sergei Ivanov told reporters in Moscow on Tuesday.
The rent for the base "is set for a long period of time in a 1997 agreement," Ivanov said.
He also denied any link between the rent and the increase in gas transit charges. "As far as I know, it wasn't yesterday that Gazprom agreed to pay world prices for gas transit," he said.