The spokesman for Russian President Vladimir Putin confirmed President Viktor Yanukovych's visit to Moscow on Nov. 9, ending media speculation over the weekend about whether the two leaders met.
“On Saturday, there was a brief visit of President Viktor Yanukovych to Moscow, where he had negotiations with Putin. They discussed a complex of trade and economic relations between Russia and Ukraine,” Dmitri Peskov, the Kremlin spokesman, was quoted by Russian news agencies as saying.
This was the second presidential meeting in less than three weeks. Previously, the presidents met on Oct. 25 to discuss prospects of Ukrainian-Russian relations in the light of Ukraine’s European aspirations. There were no further details released from this meeting.
A Ukrainian source familiar with negotiations on Nov. 9 said that there was “progress” in certain nuances of Ukrainian-Russian relations.
“The Russians are putting forth fewer conditions than the IMF (International Monetary Fund) and give more guarantees,” he said, adding that the European choice remains more attractive for Ukraine, but “not at any price.”
Ukraine has had very little progress with either its move towards signing an association and free-trade agreement at the Nov. 28-29 Eastern Partnership summit in Vilnius, Lithuania, or with its recent attempts to secure badly needed loans from the IMF.
Last week, president’s loyalists in parliament, the Party of Regions, made it clear that they are not prepared to vote for the release of former Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko from prison for treatment in Germany.
A working group in parliament will try to find a solution for this problem this week, but the moods have soured both in Ukraine and in Europe over the prospects of signing. Tymoshenko’s release remains one of the key conditions for signature, which would seal Ukraine’s European choice.
But Oleksandr Yefremov, leader of Party of Regions’ faction in parliament, said on Nov. 7 that Ukraine cannot afford to move to Europe and away from Russia.
“(Voters) have started asking us questions in the regions: what are you doing? What are we to do in this current situation,” Yefremov said at a briefing on Nov. 7. He said Russian trade sanctions, which have intensified lately in an attempt to sabotage Ukraine’s European integration, have caused job losses in eastern regions. He said Russian clients of Ukrainian businesses are putting forth new demands and are canceling contracts with Ukrainian counterparts.
Prime Minister Mykola Azarov also made a number of comments that indicated a shift towards Russia and away from Europe.
“For us the settlement of relations with Russia, mainly the trade and economic relations that include gas issues, are the issues of prime importance,” Azarov told Inter TV channel. He said Ukraine needs to “go back to the good relations we had when we concluded an agreement on free trade zone within the CIS.”
Azarov said Ukraine needs to restore its trade turnover with Russia, which dropped by 25 percent in the first 10 months of this year.
He also criticized Ukraine’s European partners, particularly EU parliament envoys Pat Cox and Alexander Kwasniewski for failing to originally pass “objective information” on the issue of Tymoshenko. “Initially, they came to Ukraine with a black and white perception: the authorities are bad because they isolate their political opponent who is white and fluffy.”
He said later the envoys changed their minds about Tymoshenko’s “guilt”, and have been asking to pardon her. Azarov also said that a possible disruption of the singing of the Associations Agreement will be fully the responsibility of “some European politicians” who have tied Tymoshenkos’ fate with prospects of signing.
However, Cox and Kwasniewski have never made official statements that Tymoshenko, who is service a seven-year sentence for abuse of office, is guilty. The European Court for Human Rights ruled that she was imprisoned for political reasons.
Cox and Kwasniewski are due to give their final report to the European Parliament on Nov. 13 on the progress of their mission in the issue of Tymoshenko’s release. This report will become a basis for the European foreign ministers’ council to take a decision on Nov. 18 on whether to sign an Association Agreement with Ukraine.
Cox and Kwasniewski said that Nov. 13 will be the last deadline for Ukraine’s parliament to vote on a law that would allow Tymoshenko to travel out of Ukraine to medical treatment.
Kyiv Post deputy chief editor Katya Gorchinskaya can be reached at [email protected].
