Subject: URGENT: update re Ukrainian energy market situation
From: "Vadim Pozharskyi" <[email-masked]>
To: "Hunter Biden" <[email-masked]>, "Devon Archer" <[email-masked]>, "Sebastian Momtazi" <[email-masked]>, "Robert Biden" <[email-masked]>
Date: Thu, 20 Nov 2014 18:16:48 +0200

Dear Hunter and Devon,
Just wanted to give you a quick, but very important update on the latest
Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine Decree re the gas market.

 As I've said to you before, as a result of its enactment, hundreds of
articles and expert op-eds have published all over Ukrainian media.
The Association of Independent Gas Producers (us) filed a suit to revoke
this Decree, wherein at least 7 absolutely indisputable reasons in support
of our claim and this decree's violation of current Ukrainian legislation
were mentioned.

The American Chamber of Commerce and European Business Association both
wrote letters to the Ukrainian PM Yatsenyuk, where they raised  deep
concerns about extremely negative consequences of this legislative
initiative for the entire gas production sector.

Another important thing, is that the European Energy Community Director
sent a letter to PM Yatsenyuk raising serious concerns about the fact this
Decree appears to contradict the Ukrainian commitments before the European
Union, a.i. obligations within the framework of the Association Agreement
and European Energy Community Treaty.

Despite all of that, the Decree still remains in force.

So far, we've received a letter from ArcellorMittal, saying that following
this Decree they are practically forced to stop buying gas from us and
start buying gas from NAK Naftogaz of Ukraine instead (a newly created
state owned monopoly). Just to remind you that up 90% of all our produced
gas volumes have been given to ArcelorMittal, so you can imagine what a
huge blow this is to us!

Taking into account all of the above, I desperately urge you to use all
resources available to you to send a clear signal (taking into account the
upcoming visit of a high-level US delegation to Ukraine) to our
authorities. Thus, you'll be basically joining the EU institutions and
international business community in order to revoke this unprecedented
illegal act.

At this point, we are on the edge of very serious repercussions.
Very much looking forward to your feedback,
Vady