MOSCOW – – Russia and Ukraine prepared on Sunday to restart gas supplies to the European Union after a deal was signed on deploying international monitors to help adjudicate in Moscow and Kiev’s gas conflict. The stage was set for a resumption of supplies by the EU’s largest foreign gas provider Russia after shuttle-diplomacy by Czech Prime Minister Mirek Topolanek secured both sides’ agreement to the deployment of monitors. Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin earlier said supplies to the EU could resume ‘immediately’ after the monitors began work, although he warned Ukraine that Moscow ‘will not tolerate theft’ of its gas. The Russian broadsheet Kommersant said an end to the cut-off was in sight but predicted EU states would in future unite to lessen dependence on Russian gas, meaning a resurgence of nuclear power and the use of other gas sources in North Africa and Central Asia. ‘From tomorrow, Gazprom’s gas transit to the European Union could be renewed and the gas war will again become a propaganda one,’ Kommersant said. ‘The EU will undoubtedly try to find ways of reducing dependence on Russian gas supplies and avoiding such crises in future,’ the paper said, […]