MOSCOW — European nations shivering amid a cutoff of Russian natural gas should form a consortium to purchase from Russia the fuel needed to pump the gas west though Ukraine’s pipelines, Prime Minister Vladimir Putin suggested Thursday.
The proposal was a new suggestion for solving the nine-day crisis that has cut off nearly all gas to some countries in Europe and sparked anger in European capitals and homes. But it addresses only one of the many complex and contentious issues dividing Russia, the gas supplier, and pipeline owner Ukraine.
For the third day in a row, Russia’s state-controlled gas giant Gazprom opened a tap near the border Thursday and asked Ukraine to send a limited amount of gas to Europe. Ukraine’s state-run gas company Naftogaz refused, saying the route Gazprom demanded would force Ukraine to shut off energy supplies to Ukrainian consumers first. Europe gets about one-quarter of all its gas from Russia, 80 percent of it via Ukraine.
