Slovakia upset by dragging Russian gas talks

* Slovakia asked Russia for gas guarantees, new storage

* Says little progress made since last Jan

* Slovakia was among the worst hit in last crisis

By Vladimir Soldatkin

MOSCOW, Nov 13 (Reuters) - Slovakia said on Friday it was upset by slow progress in its talks with Russia over new gas storage and guarantees of supply stability after suffering badly last January during a gas row between Russia and Ukraine.

Slovakia's Economy Minister Lubomir Jahnatek said on Friday his government asked Gazprom Export, the export arm of Russian gas giant Gazprom (GAZP.MM), to prepare a document to outline anti-crisis measures, but has had no response so far.

"We don't know if the documents are being prepared to prevent the crisis from repeating again," he told reporters through an interpreter after meeting Russian officials.

"The second goal is to increase the security of Slovakia's gas storage and here we don't have clarity either."

"We made a proposal to Gazprom to build new gas storage facilities on Slovak territory. We are still talking and are a bit upset by this," he added.

A standoff between Russia and Ukraine led to a halt of Russian gas supplies to Europe via Ukraine's territory in the dead of winter for two weeks in January 2009 and Slovakia was among the most hit countries.

The prospects of a new crisis emerged again this week when Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin warned that Russia would cut gas deliveries to Europe if Ukraine takes gas from transit pipelines. [ID:nLB394595]

Around a thousand Slovak companies were forced to shut down or cut production in January, including car makers and steel producers, as a result of gas cuts.

To read latest stories on Russian gas row with Ukraine, please click on [ID:nLC015245]

(Editing by William Hardy)