President Vladimir Putin has congratulated Gazprom on its 15th anniversary, saying that “the history of the company is a history of great, hard and coordinated work of a team of the like-minded”. “There is a depressing sense of déjà vu about the latest energy dispute between Russia and Ukraine.” Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko said the previous Ukrainian government was responsible for incurring debts for the supply of Russian gas, and has called for them to be restructured. Gazprom is “ready to stop deliveries from 10 a.m. Moscow time on Feb. 12” following Sergei Ivanov’s statement, “We are no longer doing charity worth billions of dollars.” Ivanov says that Russia’s plan to curb gas deliveries to Ukraine because of a dispute over payment won’t hurt European consumers. Dmitry Medvedev has asked the CEO of Transneft and Russia’s Minister for Industry and Energy to ensure the completion of the East Siberia-Pacific Ocean (ESPO) pipeline, putting it into the operation at the end of 2008. Transneft had initially said it would be unable to complete the pipeline until 2009.