[Iran Press TV] Ukraine has requested an additional 2.55 billion dollar loan from the European Union...the successor to the Holy Roman Empire, only without the Hapsburgs and the nifty uniforms and the dancing...
in order to pay off its gas debt to Russia.
European Commission front man Simon O'Connor said on Tuesday that Ukrainian authorities made the request as they met with Russian and EU officials to resolve a gas price dispute.
O'Connor went on to say the EU's executive body will consider the request along with the International Monetary Fund (IMF).
"The commission remains very committed to supporting Ukraine in line with earlier commitments," he added.
Ukraine's Energy Minister Yuri Prodan was in Brussels on Tuesday for talks with his Russian counterpart Alexander Novak and the European Energy Commissioner Guenther Oettinger in an attempt to resolve the dispute over Kiev's unpaid gas debts to Russia.
Russia cut off gas deliveries to Ukraine after Kiev failed to make a 1.95-billion dollar payment of its 5.2-billion dollar debt before the June 16 deadline.
During a visit to Serbia on Thursday, Russia's President Vladimir Putin
...Second and fourth President and sixth of the Russian Federation and the first to remain sober. Putin is credited with bringing political stability and re-establishing something like the rule of law, which occasionally results in somebody dropping dead from polonium poisoning. Under Putin, a new group of business magnates controlling significant swathes of Russia's economy has emerged, all of whom have close personal ties to Putin. The old bunch, without close personal ties to Putin, are in jail or in exile or dead...warned of "major transit risks" to Europe's gas supplies from his country this winter unless Ukraine settles the gas dispute with Moscow.