ST. PETERSBURG, April 24. /ITAR-TASS/. Russia will continue contacts with European countries on the issues stated in President Vladimir Putin’s letter on gas supplies, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said on Thursday, April 24.

He recalled that European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso had sent a reply to the latter on behalf of the EU member states. “At the same time, we maintain bilateral contact with the countries that are not EU members. There are six of them, I think. And negotiations are still ahead of us,” Peskov said.

A ministerial meeting of Russian, EU and Ukrainian representatives regarding the problem of Ukraine’s payments for the natural gas it gets from Russia is very likely to be held in Brussels at the beginning of next week. The European Commissioner for Energy, Gunter Oettinger, has already sent out the EU’s proposals and has received an answer from the Russian Energy Minister, Alexander Novak, Ristori said, adding that the main thing now is to come to terms on the date of the conference very quickly.