U.S.-British financier George Soros and CEO of Naftogaz of Ukraine negotiated the terms of privatization of PJSC Ukrgazvydobuvannya, the largest gas producing enterprise in Ukraine, Former Deputy of the Russia’s State Duma Ilya Ponomarev said during interview with ET.

"As per George’s request I wrote one paper about the plans regarding Naftogaz reform and the gas market. Then Kobolev said that he sees the future of Naftogaz in the form of a gas exchange that would guarantee all transactions," Ponomarev said.

To the clarifying question about the role of Ukrgazvydobuvannya in this document, he replied: "As per global standards, it is a small company, which makes no sense to keep in state hands. I would privatize it, but not as one company; I would divide it into three parts, preventing these three parts from being owned by one group. Of course, as far as I am concerned, both Kobolev and Vitrenko supported this idea, "he said.

According to him, then the executives of Naftogaz encountered with the problem of "how to prevent these pieces of Ukrgazvydobuvannya from falling into oligarchic hands in the current political situation".

"But they still support privatization. For them, it looks like the sale of a limited package of Ukrgazvydobuvannya, for example, 25% of shares to the foreign institution like EBRD that is not privatization by itself", Ponomarev said.

To the clarifying question about whether Soros supports the idea of ​​dividing Ukrgazvydobuvannya into three parts for further privatization, he replied: "Yes, he always said that he thinks the same way".

During conversation with EP, Ilya Ponomarev also said that it was George Soros, who acted as a communicator of his acquaintance with the management of Naftogaz.

In Facebook, Naftogaz refuted meeting of Kobolev and Soros.