Ukraine on Thursday threatened Russia with unspecified "consequences" if it doesn't lower the price of its natural gas supplies, raising the stakes in an increasingly tense pricing dispute between the two neighbors. The ultimatum was likely to draw alarm in European capitals, because a previous pricing war between the two countries led Russia to halt supplies to Ukraine, which caused shortages for customers across Europe. Prime Minister Mykola Azarov said Kiev will make one more attempt with Russian officials to revise the 11-year supply contract signed in 2009. If that doesn't happen, "without a doubt, all the responsibility for the consequences will lie with those leaders who won't listen to our reasoning," he said in a speech at a university in Kiev. --Business Week, 8 September 2011
