KIEV, April 25 – Russian President Dmitry Medvedev will arrive in Ukraine Tuesday to commemorate the 25th anniversary of the Chernobyl nuclear catastrophe, and will also try to persuade Kiev to have closer political cooperation with Moscow.

This will be the first meeting between Medvedev and President Viktor Yanukovych this year as relations between the two countries have cooled amid political and trade disagreements.

“Tomorrow I will go to Chernobyl,” Russian state-owned news agency RIA Novosti reported on Monday, citing Medvedev.

The Chernobyl nuclear power plant’s reaction No. 4 exploded on April 26, 1986, sending radioactive dust across much of Europe in what has become the world’s worst civilian nuclear catastrophe.

Medvedev met Yanukovych 11 times in the course of 10 months in 2010, but the two have yet failed to meet each other this year, underscoring the widening political and trade disagreements.
Medvedev’s trip will not be limited to the Chernobyl commemoration and will also include important political and trade talks as Moscow seeks to tie Ukraine closer politically and economically.

Medvedev will discuss “interaction between the two countries” within the framework of the Customs Union, a Russia-led trade bloc that also includes Kazakhstan and Belarus, according to the Kremlin report.

Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin, during his visit to Kiev on April 12, offered Ukraine up to $9 billion in annual trade benefits, mostly from lower natural gas and oil prices, for joining the union.

He also said that Ukraine’s economy will be growing 2 percentage points faster if the country joins the bloc.

However, Yanukovych and other political figures appeared to be lukewarm to the idea, and pledged to press ahead with negotiation over free trade area with the European Union.

Yanukovych said that an increased cooperation with Russia would be based on bilateral free trade agreement, which must be expanded by eliminating some existing mutual trade restrictions.

Yanukovych said such formula of cooperation – as opposed to joining the Customs Union - would help to boost mutual trade to $50 billion annually, up from $42 billion in 2010.

Putin, however, warned Ukraine that should the country reject the Customs Union and join the free trade agreement with the EU, it will most likely force Moscow to erect trade barriers against Ukrainian goods. (tl/ez)