MOSCOW, Jan 19 (Reuters) - Russia's foreign minister on Jan. 19 called on Ukraine's presidential candidates to improve ties with Russia.
Ukrainian opposition leader Victor Yanukovych and Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko will face each other in a run-off presidential election on Feb. 7 after no candidate secured a majority in Sunday’s vote.
Sunday’s first-round vote in Ukraine set up a Feb. 7 run-off between opposition leader Viktor Yanukovich and Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko. Both are seen as friendlier to Russia than the current, pro-Western President Viktor Yushchenko.
"I hope that when the final results are compiled in Ukraine, a workable, effective leadership will appear disposed to the development of constructive, friendly and comprehensive relations with the Russian Federation," Medvedev told Russia’s new ambassador to Ukraine Mikhail Zurabov.
Moscow has refrained from backing either candidate after Putin’s support of Yanukovich’s failed 2004 presidential bid was widely seen as an embarrassing diplomatic failure.
Putin publicly backed Yanukovich and his pro-Russian policies in the 2004 campaign and quickly congratulated him when initial results indicated he had won.
But Yanukovich’s apparent victory was overturned amid a wave of protests over allegations of voter fraud fuelled in part by anti-Russian feeling, dubbed the Orange Revolution. Yushchenko won a court-ordered rerun of the vote.
While the 2004 election was a battle between the pro-Russian Yanukovych and the pro-Western policies of eventual winner Viktor Yushchenko, relations with Russia have been a relatively minor issue in the current campaign.
Yanukovych and Tymoshenko have called for improved ties with both Moscow and the European Union.
Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov earlier on Tuesday called on the eventual winner not to play political games with Moscow.
"I am sure that the new Ukrainian president… will fully understand the need to develop relations this way and not make them hostage to their own, or someone else’s, political ambitions," he told journalists.
At Tuesday’s meeting Medvedev also finalised Zurabov’s appointment as Ukrainian ambassador and named him a special presidential envoy for trade and economic ties.
