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NOVO-OGARYOVO, Russia-Prime Minister Vladimir Putin accused the European Union of moving too slowly to help negotiate an end to the gas dispute between Russia and Ukraine, as a deal to dispatch EU pipeline monitors was reached Thursday.EU governments criticized both countries, saying it was unacceptable to see homes unheated, businesses closing and schools shut down in the middle of winter due to gas shortages because neither Russia nor Ukraine could stick to its supply contracts.The chiefs of Russia's state-controlled gas monopoly Gazprom and Ukraine's Naftogaz held talks Thursday for the first time since negotiations collapsed on New Year's Eve over 2009 gas prices. Russia said it was willing to resume pumping natural gas to Europe through Ukrainian pipelines as soon as monitors were in place to verify the gas flow.Czech Prime Minister Mirek Topolanek, whose country holds the EU presidency, said Thursday he spoke to Putin and German Chancellor Angela Merkel and they agreed on how monitors should check Russian gas entering and leaving Ukraine."Our European partners must act quickly in these unusual conditions," Putin told journalists at his residence outside Moscow."We don't need some group of ladies and gentlemen to go to Kiev and sit and drink vodka in the hotel," Putin said. "We need people at the points where our gas enters and exits Ukraine in the direction of Europe."Russia stopped all natural gas supplies to Ukraine on Jan. 1 but kept supplies flowing to Europe through Ukraine's pipelines until Wednesday, when all deliveries stopped.Russia accused Ukraine of siphoning off gas intended for European customers.Ukraine denied this.Putin said Ukraine must pay the current European price for natural gas, which is more than twice what Ukraine paid last year. Russia then would agree to double the fee it pays to ship that gas over Ukrainian pipelines to Europe, he said, a change from Gazprom's earlier stance that it would not pay more in transit fees.Ukraine, however, was unlikely to agree to that arrangement. It has offered to pay $201 per 1,000 cubic meters, up from last year's price of $179.50 but nowhere near the Russian demand of $418...By AP
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