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Kyiv (Interfax) - Ukraine should send a strong signal to Russia that they are indeed strategic partners, said ex-president Leonid Kuchma.

"It seems to me that unless confidence between our countries is rebuilt at the very top level, whatever words we say and however beautiful documents we make, all this will not work. No one will be paying attention to them," Kuchma said at the Ukrainian-Russian forum in Kyiv on Friday.

"I can see that Ukraine is creating the main problem. We need to give a strong and clear signal to Russia that Ukraine is its strategic partner not just on a paper, but in whatever is being done both domestically and internationally," the ex-president said.

A change of power is the main pre-requisite, he said.

At the same time, holding new parliamentary elections is "fatal for the country," he said.

"But at least our political elite could have enough brains, which they probably have, and responsibility for the country, and not themselves and their seats, to create a coalition in the parliament, which would be viable, which could actually take responsibility for passing even unpopular measures," said the former president.

"I think we need to ask our political elite: "Dear friends, enough is enough. The president is silent, the parliament is silent, because there is no head," Kuchma said.

The authorities should "show their best cards," he said.

"What we think about NATO, what we think about Russia and where we have our main centers. And whether the centers are in Warsaw and Tbilisi, or maybe still in Moscow and in Brussels," he said.