Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych has left on a working visit to Russia, the presidential press service has reported.
The head of state will meet with Russian President Dmitry Medvedev and Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin.
Yanukovych is visiting Moscow as tensions are rising between the two nations over energy issues.
Ukraine is threatening to cut imports of Russian natural gas unless Moscow discounts the price of natural gas that it sells to Kyiv. Yanukovych has said that other European nations, such as Germany, are paying far less for gas imports than Ukraine, but the Kremlin says energy-hungry Ukraine is paying a fair price — some $350 per 1,000 cubic meters.
Meanwhile, Moscow is pushing ahead with the Nord Stream gas pipeline that bypasses Ukraine as a transit country.
Ukraine now transits 80 percent of the European-bound gas from Russia, but — besides Nord Stream through the Baltic Sea — Russia wants to build the South Stream pipeline under the Black Sea, also bypassing Ukraine’s gas transit network. At stake is hundreds of millions of dollars in yearly transit fees that Ukraine is currently able to charge.
Russian President Dmitry Medvedev, left, and Prime Minister Vladimir Putin, right, gesture walking with Ukranian President Viktor Yanukovich at the presidential residence in Zavidovo, about 90 miles (150 kilometers) north of Moscow, Russia. (AP Photo/Sergei Karpukhin, pool)
With Putin likely to regain the presidency in 2012 and believed to hold Yanukovych in low regard, some think the Russian prime minister will adopt a get-tough posture with Ukraine as a way to revive his slipping popularity at home. The Russian leader has also made disparaging remarks about Ukraine’s sovereignty and its contributions to winning World War II. On gas transit, Putin says his nation is tired of being held hostage to Ukraine’s pipelines.
Moscow is also expected to keep up the pressure on Ukraine to drop European Union integration plans and join the Russian-led customs union. In fact, Russian leaders have said that joining the customs union is one of the only ways Ukraine can get a discount on Russian gas. Moscow is also eyeing a stake in Ukraine’s pipelines and has been pushing a merger of the two nation’s state-run energy monopolies — Ukraine’s Naftogaz and Russia’s Gazprom.
Russian President Dmitry Medvedev, left, and Prime Minister Vladimir Putin, right, talk to Ukranian President Viktor Yanukovich at the presidential residence in Zavidovo, about 90 miles (150 kilometers) north of Moscow, Russia. (AP Photo/Sergei Karpukhin, pool)
While many believe Putin has been calling the shots all along in Russia even as prime minister, his return to the presidency is expected to be bad news for Yanukovych.
Writing in his online blog after the announcement that Putin would return as president of Russia, Andriy Okara, a Moscow-based political analyst who closely follows Ukraine, warned that tough days are ahead for Yanukovych. "For Yanukovych … this is the end of his political career,” Okara wrote.
