MOSCOW (Commodity Online): A row between Russia and Ukraine over the payment of Russian natural gas has been eased as Ukraine’s Naftogaz had paid full debt to Russia’s energy major Gazprom, said a a Gazprom spokesman.

Ukrainian Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko said on Friday that Ukraine had paid the $500 million bill, but the information was not immediately confirmed by Gazprom. Bohdan Sokolovskyi, a Ukrainian presidential envoy for international energy security, said the cash-strapped ex-Soviet state had converted its special drawing rights (SDRs) into dollars to make the payment.

In late October, Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin warned against possible problems with Kiev's payment for gas, saying they could cause difficulties for European consumers receiving Russian gas via Ukraine. Trading platform that even a 5 year old can trade. Join now

A dispute between Moscow and Kiev at the start of the year over gas debts and 2009 deliveries left millions of Europeans without gas in January.