KIEV, Aug. 15 – Gazprom suggested on Monday that Ukraine should follow the footsteps of Belarus in surrendering its natural gas pipelines to the Russian company in exchange for lower gas prices.

Alexei Miller, the CEO of Gazprom, suggested the idea at a meeting with Russian President Dmitry Medvedev and Ukrainian Energy Minister Yuriy Boyko in Moscow.

“At Gazprom’s opinion, the development of cooperation in the gas sector could be built on the same model as we work with our Belarusian friends,” Miller told reporters after the meeting with Medvedev and Boyko, Russian state-run news agency RIA Novosti reported.