KIEV, April 17 – The price of imported gas for Ukraine as of January 2009 won't be lower than $320 per 1,000 cubic meters, according to Konstantin Simonov, the president of the Center for Current Politics in Russia and the director of the National Energy Security Fund.

"In my belief, the price won't be lower than $320. I think it will be between $320 and $350," he said at a press conference at Interfax-Ukraine in Kiev on Thursday on the role of energy in Russia-Ukraine relations.