Economic issues, such as cash-strapped Ukraine’s bills for Russian natural gas, are expected to dominate his meetings with Russian President Dmitry Medvedev and the country’s most powerful politician, Prime Minister Vladimir Putin. Political ties soured under Yanukovich’s pro-Western predecessor, Viktor Yushchenko, who came to power after the Orange Revolution and sought to take his country towards membership of the European Union and NATO. Yanukovich, inaugurated last week, comes to Russia days after his first foreign trip as head of state, to Brussels, where he promised the European Union to keep Ukraine on the reform path and ensure it remains a reliable gas transit route. Europe, which gets a fifth of its gas needs from Russia via Ukraine, is hoping Yanukovich’s more pro-Russian stance can guarantee he will avoid repeating the price disputes which led to supply cuts to Europe in recent years. “I hope that the dark period in relations between Ukraine and Russia will end with your arrival as president, that we will move to a completely new level of cooperation,” said Medvedev at the start of talks in the Kremlin.
Yanukovich responded that he wanted a u-turn in ties that would erase the tensions of the past five years.
