Russian President Vladimir Putin met with Ukraine's leader Viktor Yushchenko in Kiev Saturday in a bid to define the two nations' new relationship after last year's "orange revolution" that turned Kiev away from Moscow and toward the West. "We have much to talk about," Yushchenko said in televised remarks at the beginning of talks with the Russian leader, who arrived in Ukraine after meeting his French, German and Spanish counterparts in Paris.
"We should not lose our previous level of relations," said Putin.
The two leaders met for more than two hours at one of Yushchenko's residences and were due to hold a press conference later in the evening.
Top among the issues they discussed was an economic union between Belarus, Kazakhstan, Russia and Ukraine that is being pushed by Moscow but that Yushchenko has said he would not sign if it endangers Kiev's chances of eventual EU membership.
Putin denied that membership in the economic zone would hurt Ukraine's EU chances as he met with Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko.
"There is a false idea out there that a free economic zone (leads) in one direction and the EU (leads) into another," Interfax quoted Putin as saying. "There is nothing of the sort."
Also included in Saturday's discussions were border demarcation in the strategic Kerch Strait that separates the Sea of Azov from the Black Sea and the problem of migrants from Asia who enter Ukraine each year from Russia on their way to western Europe and Moldova's separatist region of Transdniestr.
Following last year's "orange revolution" that swept the Western-oriented Yushchenko into power in Ukraine, Kiev and Moscow face a delicate task - the two historically linked nations must figure out how to head their separate political ways without damaging economic interdependence.