Political scientists believe that Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych's visit to Moscow on March 4 will be another stage of the bilateral negotiating process and it should not be expected that concrete decisions will be taken during it.
“He will say that all of our plans with respect to Europe are just right [for Russia], that nothing contradicts our great friendship and great relations… Let’s agree on the pipelines and the Customs Union. Don’t worry, we won’t do anything bad,” Director of Kyiv’s Center for Political and Conflict Studies Mykhailo Pohrebynsky said at a press conference at Interfax-Ukraine on Friday, predicting what decisions can be expected from Yanukovych’s visit to Moscow on March 4.
Director of the Penta Center for Political Studies Volodymyr Fesenko, in turn, noted: “There is no reason to expect any drastic decisions or new documents from the visit on March 4. I think that when a state visit is paid to Russia, then some documents could be prepared for it.”
He said that this would be a working visit.
“I think that he will really calm Russia. This is the so-called shuttle diplomacy. He [Yanukovych] should calm [Russian President Vladimir] Putin and discuss the ideas, some of which he announced publicly, both on the consortium and the pipelines,” Fesenko said.
He said that this would be a stage of the negotiation process, rather than the stage of decision-making.
As reported, Yanukovych will make a working visit to Russia on March 4.
