By Country / Russia
Ukraine's New Premier Reassures Russia In Moscow Visit
September 30, 2005
Yuriy Yekhanurov (file photo)
![]()
30 September 2005 -- Ukraine's new Prime Minister Yuriy Yekhanurov said today that Russia is Kyiv's "main partner" and that Russian businesses would keep anything they bought in Ukraine's controversial privatization process in the 1990s.
Yekhanurov spoke to reporters in Moscow after talks with Russian Prime Minister Mikhail Fradkov.
Yekhanurov said relations between the two countries need to be more "pragmatic," adding it was "not normal" that his predecessor, Yuliya Tymoshenko, never held a bilateral meeting with Fradkov.
"There have been no meetings between the prime ministers (of Ukraine and Russia) this year," Yekhanurov said. "This is not normal and now we should work more intensively to catch up on what was left undone, and also look objectively at those problems that we have now."
Yekhanurov's visit to Moscow was his first trip abroad since
taking office last week.
(AFP/ITAR-TASS)