The Hindu : International : "Russia, Ukraine eternal partners"

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Tuesday, Jan 25, 2005

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International

"Russia, Ukraine eternal partners"

By Vladimir Radyuhin

MOSCOW, JAN. 24. Ukraine's newly-elected President, Viktor Yushchenko, told the Russian President, Vladimir Putin, that he viewed Russia as Ukraine's "eternal strategic partner" despite Moscow's support for his rival in the controversial election campaign.

Mr. Yushchenko visited Moscow today, less than 24 hours after he was sworn in as Ukraine's third post-Soviet President.

"I would like to make this principled point: this is my first visit abroad," Mr. Yushchenko said in his opening remarks in the Kremlin. "This is a token of high esteem for our relations."

For his part, the Russian leader stressed the need to push ahead with economic integration between the two countries.

"We hope very much that our relations with Ukraine will advance steadily as they have done so far," Mr. Putin said specifically mentioning the Single Economic Space, a common market Russia is building with Ukraine, Belarus and Kazakhstan. However, the new pro-Western Ukrainian leadership believes the common market with Russia will interfere with their plan to take Ukraine into the European Union.

Mr. Yushchenko today appointed his close ally, Ms. Yulia Timoshenko, as acting Prime Minister. The appointment, announced when Mr. Yushchenko was meeting Mr. Putin, came as an embarrassment for Moscow, which seeks Ms. Timoshenko's arrest on charges of having swindled the Russian Defence Ministry of hundreds of millions of dollars when she was a Deputy Premier in Ukraine in the 1990s.

Ms. Timoshenko was a firebrand leader of the "orange revolution" in Ukraine that forced the annulment of the November 21 run-off vote which Mr. Yushchenko lost to a Russia-backed candidate and the holding of a re-vote he won.

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