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Matviyenko to travel to Ukraine Wed to discuss ccop'n prospects

The Russian guest will be also offered a diverse cultural program

Photo ITAR-TASS

Photo ITAR-TASS

MOSCOW, November 30 (Itar-Tass) — Valentina Matviyenko, Speaker of the Federation Council (FC) upper house of the Russian parliament, travels to Ukraine on Wednesday for a two-day official visit to discuss prospects for the development of bilateral cooperation, including regional contacts.

Immediately upon atriving at the airport, Matviyenko will go to meet with President Viktor Yanukovich. The program also provides for talks with Verkhovna Rada Speaker Vladimir Litvin and Prime Minister Nikolai Azarov.

The main subject of discussion during talks with Litvin is expected to be a search for ways to give greater scope to interparliamentary cooperation both with a view to invigorating the dialogue between Moscow and Kiev and within the context of efforts to step up integrational processes in the post-Soviet space.

When speaking of the importance of this area of Russia-Ukraine interaction during a meeting with Vladimir Yelchenko, Ukraine's Ambassador to the Russian Federation (RF), Matviyenko pointed out such a task which is of current importance as "bringing closer together and synchronizing legislations".

Her opinion is that the lawmakers of Russia and Ukraine must "create comfortable conditions for trade-and-economic, social and cultural cooperation between the two states". Later in the day the FC Speaker will visit the Russian science and culture center to socialize with members of artistic and scientific communities of Ukraine.

On Thursday the FC Speaker will visit Zhitomir Region to meet with local authorities and businessmen. The FC as chamber representing regions traditionally devotes enhanced attention to the broadening of the RF regions' international contacts. Therefore, it is not ruled out that her conversations will also deal with possibilities to achieve new interregional accords and to determine interaction areas which generate mutual interest of Ukrainian and Russian businesses. The strengthening of interregional cooperation and particularly cross-border one accords with the "deep contacts, aspirations and interests of the Russian and Ukrainian peoples," the FC Speaker maintains.

The Russian guest will be also offered a diverse cultural program, including familiarization with the House Museum of Academician Sergei Korolyov, the founder of practical cosmonautics, in Zhitomir and a tour of the literary memorial museum of famous poetess Lesya Ukrainka in the city of Novograd-Volynsky.

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