TODAY: Ukraine and Russia reach winter gas accord; Moscow court orders nationalisation of Bashneft; Russia will claim Arctic shelf next year; Polish industrials seeking non-Russian gas sources; U.K. responds to news of Russia Today’s new channel; Milonov slurs Apple CEO; corruption allegations against pension and construction heads.

Ukraine and Russia have reached an ‘11th-hour’ agreement on gas supplies for the winter, easing fears about energy security during the cold months.  Moscow will resume supplies in exchange for Ukraine immediately paying off $1.45 billion of its gas debt, and promising to cover the remaining $3.1 billion by the end of the year, according to EU Energy Commissioner Guenther Oettinger, who signed the accord, along with Russian Energy Minister Alexander Novak and his Ukrainian counterpart Yuri Prodan.  Uncertainty still remains regarding next summer’s prices.  Moscow’s Arbitration Court has ruled that the Bashneft stake owned by Sistema was illegally privatised and now must be returned to the state – effectively nationalising the company. The decision has led to ‘an outcry in Russia’s business community’ and drawn comparisons with the break-up of Yukos.  Sistema says it will appeal the decision.  Russia plans to claim over one million square kilometers of the Arctic shelf by filing a formal application with the United Nations next year.  Some of Poland’s big industrial consumers of natural gas are reducing their intake from PGNiG, which gets most of its imported gas from Gazprom, and diversifying to other sources.