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GISMETEO.RU
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Nation    

President denies planned trip to Moscow
Journal Staff Report

KIEV, Jan. 16 – President Viktor Yanukovych’s spokeswoman on Wednesday denied media reports that a trip to Moscow has been scheduled for February to discuss closer economic and trade cooperation with Russia.

The report in Izvestia, a Russian daily, said Yanukovych planned to meet his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin before February 25, the day when Ukraine was due to hold a summit with the European Union.

“As of the current moment, the head of state’s agenda does not have such a trip scheduled,” Darka Chepak, Yanukovych’s press secretary, told Interfax-Ukraine. “Once it’s scheduled, we will let media know.”

The comments come amid speculations that Yanukovych has been considering changing the country’s foreign policy course away from European integration towards joining a Russia-led trade bloc.

Steven Pifer, a former U.S. ambassador to Ukraine, said earlier this week that such foreign policy switch is unlikely because it poses serious domestic political risks for Yanukovych.

But Russia, eager to increase its geopolitical clout, has been putting mounting pressure on Ukraine to force Kiev to change its foreign policy and to join the Customs Union, the Moscow-led trade bloc.

The refusal to join the bloc would unleash trade restrictions with Russia blocking imports of Ukrainian steel pipes and other key goods and commodities, analysts said.

“The Russian diplomacy has received a task to force Yanukovych in the near future to accept the idea of the Customs Union,” Adriy Okara, a Moscow-based political analyst, said.

“Yanukovych does not want to go to Moscow. The situation is quite dramatic and a detective. They are trying to lure him in every way,” Okara said.

The timing is crucial, Okara said, because if there is no Moscow trip by February 25 - the day when Ukraine may sign an agreement with the EU - “the chances of integrating Ukraine into the Customs Union are critically reduced.”

Yanukovych has earlier suggested increasing cooperation with the Customs Union by joining some parts of the bloc.

Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev on Wednesday rejected this approach and said the accession and membership must be full-fledged.

“Our partners have to not only share principles of the Customs Union, but also be able to implement them,” Medvedev said, Ukrinform reported. “While joining the Customs Union, one needs to sign all documents, not parts of them.”

A combined gross domestic product of the Customs Union is $2.1 trillion, while a combined GDP of the EU is $17.6 trillion, potentially opening more trade opportunities for Ukraine, according to Pifer.

Yanukovych was expected to travel to Moscow on December 18, 2012, but cancelled the trip hours before boarding a plane, citing the need for “additional consultations.”

Arseniy Yatseniuk, the leader of the opposition Batkivshchyna party, praised the move and said the party will buy Yanukovych a ticket to Brussels. “This is where we need to got,” he said. (tl/ez)




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