BERLIN, May 30. /ITAR-TASS/. Russia’s gas utility Gazprom has much more grounds to seek arbitration on the gas dispute that Ukraine, Russian Energy Minister Alexander Novak said on Friday after the gas consultations involving Russia, Ukraine and the European Commission.

“We think Gazprom has more grounds to appeal to arbitration court that the Ukrainian side,” he told journalists. “It is a long procedure and we don’t think it is constructive. It would be right to try to reach an agreement off arbitration bodies.”

Earlier on Friday, Ukraine’s parliament-appointed Minister of Energy and Coal Industry Yuri Prodan said that Kiev was ready to file a suit against Russia’s Gazprom to the court of arbitration in Stockholm to make Gazprom revise its contract prices for gas.