KIEV, December 18, 7:09 /ITAR-TASS/. Ukraine's Prime Minister Nikolai Azarov, at a government meeting here on Wednesday, will sum up the preliminary results of the visit to Moscow by the Ukrainian delegation led by President Viktor Yanukovich. According to the presidential press service, fourteen documents were signed as a result of the 6th session of the Russia-Ukraine interstate commission (ISC).
The statement by Russia's President Vladimir Putin about lowering the price of gas for Ukraine from the presen price of over $400 to $286.5 per 1,000 cu. m. was a gratifying news to the Ukrainians. Vice-Premier Yuri Boiko told journalists that the new price of Russia's gas would remain in effect from 2014 to 2019.
Briefings by Eduard Stavitsky, Ukrainian Minister of Energy and Coal Industry, Mikhail Korolenko, Minister of Industrial Policy, and Mikhail Brodsky, Chairman of the State Service for Regulatory Policy and Entrepreneurship Development, are to be held within the framework of the government meeting. They are expected to comment on the final documents of the 6th session of the Russia-Ukraine ISC.
Ukraine's ruling Party of Regions has come forward with a special statement on the results of the Moscow meeting. "The lowering of the price of gas will make it possible to revitalize whole branches of the national economy, raise the competitiveness of the domestic commodity producer, and considerably augment the export potential of Ukraine," the document says.
"Foreseeing succeeding fits of populist and pseudopatriotic rhetoric of our opponents, we want once again to state with all responsibility and spell it distinctly that "By signing agreements with the Russian Federation, the Ukrainian side does not surrender the national interests, does not surrender the national gas transprtation system, and does not plan to enter the Customs Union," the Regionals emphasized.
The opposition intends to discuss the visit by Viktor Yanukovich to Moscow in the Verkhovna Rada, and not only in palriament: an oppodition rally is going on in the capital's Maidan Nezalezhnosty (Independence Square). On Tuesday opposition leaders took a decision to carry it on and "take counsel with the people" in a daily mode.
Speaking from the stage set up in the Square, Arseny Yatsenyuk, Chairman of the Political Council of the Batkivshchina party, said that if the accords reached in Moscow "run counter to the course towards Eurointegration of Ukraine, they would not go through the Verkhovna Rada". "We shall blockade parliament very firmly," he threatened.
Prominent political experts are to present their vision of the results of the Ukrainian delegation's visit to Moscow at news conferences on the themes of "Moscow-Kiev: New Spiral of Relations?", "Ukrain's Foreign Policy Vector: Russia, Europe, China", and "The Results of Yanukovich Visit to Moscow". There will be also a Moscow-Kiev video hookup on the theme of "Russia and Ukraine: Results of the Meeting of the Presidents in Moscow".
As was reported earlier, as a result of the 6th session of the Russia-Ukraine interstate commmission, held in Moscow on Tuesday, fourteen documents were signed in the presence of the two countries' presidents. Specifically, the sides approved an Action Plan for settling the question of limitations in bilateral trade between the RF and Ukraine for the 2013-2014 period.
According to Russian presidential aide Yuri Ushakov, the issue concerning Ukraine' signing an Agreement on Association with the EU was not discussed at the interstate commission's session which was co-chaired by Vladimir Putin and Viktor Yanukovich.