NOVO-OGARYOVO, Russia (Reuters) - Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin on Friday warned that Ukrainian President Viktor Yushchenko risked provoking a new gas crisis that could disrupt supplies to Europe.
"It looks like, we will again have problems with energy payments," Putin said after a telephone call with Ukrainian Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko, Yushchenko's main political foe and a frontrunner in a January 17 presidential election.
Putin, speaking at his Novo-Ogaryovo residence outside Moscow, said Yushchenko was "blocking the transfer of funds" to pay for Russian gas.
He added that the European Union had also failed to help ease the problem.
"The European Union has not given the promised money," Putin said at a meeting with leaders of his United Russia political party.
Major EU customers were left without gas for nearly two weeks in the dead of winter in January after a pricing dispute between Moscow and Kiev.
Russia supplies a quarter of Europe's gas needs and the bulk of those volumes cross the territory of Ukraine.
(Reporting by Gleb Bryanski, writing by Guy Faulconbridge, editing by Dmitry Zdhannikov)
