New Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovich is arriving in Moscow on Friday to meet his Russian counterpart Dmitry Medvedev.

(Kazan, March 5, Tatar-inform). New Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovich is arriving in Moscow on Friday to meet his Russian counterpart Dmitry Medvedev and “make a sharp turn” to improve relations between the two countries that fell to an extreme low under his predecessor Viktor Yushchenko, Itar-Tass reports.

The Kremlin said gas supplies and transit to Europe will be discussed, as well as border delimitation in the Kerch Strait in the Sea of Azov, and the deployment of the Russian Black Sea fleet in Crimea, as the lease of the naval base in Sevastopol expires in 2017.

Yanukovich previously made it clear he would ask to decrease prices of Russian gas and would in exchange return to the idea of creating a gas transit consortium with the participation of Ukraine, Russia and the European Union. Previous Ukrainian authorities deleted Russia from the plan.

“We shall definitely consider traditional issues in relations between Ukraine and Russia, including gas supplies to Ukraine, gas transit to Europe and the reliability of the (transit) system,” Yanukovich is quoted as saying.

The Kremlin responded “the Russian side insists on the necessity of strict fulfillment of existing agreements and contracts in the (gas) sphere taking into account also the issue of ensuring uninterrupted supplies of the Russian natural gas to European customers.”

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