You're reading: Russia visit by Yanukovych: Strong rhetoric and half-baked documents

MOSCOW - Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych on Monday will hold talks with Russian President Vladimir Putin at Zavidovo country residence.

It will be the fifth meeting of the two leaders during Putin’s current presidential term.

All recent Russian-Ukrainian top-level talks have had one and the
same pattern of media coverage. All visits are preceded by a powerful
propaganda campaign: Ukraine demands a reduction in natural gas rates,
Ukraine diversifies gas deliveries, Ukraine is unwilling to pay
penalties for unused gas and so on.

However, in reality there is much less pressure. During the exchange
of statements at the beginning of the meetings Yanukovych says he would
want to talk of gas. The rest of the meetings are closed to the press.
The sides don’t issue any final declarations. And Kyiv’s propaganda
machinery slows down until the next visit. The technical details of
preparations for the Monday meeting do not imply any other scenario.

The commentaries of officials on the expected outcome of the meeting
do not give hope for any breakthrough either. On the eve of the meeting
Putin’s press secretary Dmitry Peskov said: “No final documents are
planned for signing before all differences are removed.” The dynamics of
contacts between Gazprom and Ukrainian officials also speak of the
depth of differences. The latest meeting took place almost a month ago
on February 8. Gazprom reported the meeting with record brevity: “The
sides continued talks on a set of questions of cooperation in the gas
sphere.” The Kremlin admits that the differences over which the December
visit of Yanukovych to Russia was cancelled remain.

Officially the talks are to focus on cooperation in energy, trade,
the economic, scientific and technical spheres. Attention will also be
paid to working out a mutually-acceptable mechanism of Ukraine’s
engagement with the Customs Union of Russia, Belarus and Kazakhstan.