UKRAINE/RUSSIA: Attempts by Ukraine's new president, Viktor Yushchenko, to mend fences with Russia got off to a bad start yesterday when he named Ms Yulia Tymoshenko, the subject of a Moscow arrest warrant, as his new prime minister.
The announcement came hours before President Yushchenko arrived in Moscow to ease tensions with the Kremlin caused by last month's election turmoil.
President Vladimir Putin backed his rival, Viktor Yanukovich, in last month's presidential elections. And the Kremlin is alarmed at Mr Yushchenko's decision to face westwards, rather than towards its traditional ally, Moscow.
Anxious to ease tensions with his huge neighbour to the east, Mr Yushchenko very pointedly made Moscow his first stop on a week-long tour of Europe. But relations were not eased with the announcement that Ms Tymoshenko, his deputy in the so-called Orange Revolution, is the new premier.
In Kiev, Ms Tymoshenko is a popular choice: she was his passionate sidekick throughout the so-called Orange Revolution which saw huge demonstrations in the streets of the city. The announcement is seen in Ukraine as a reward for her support, but in Russia it will be a further obstacle to good relations.
Last month Russian prosecutors accused Ms Tymoshenko of fraud and bribes during the 1990s when she was a gas trader.
In public, Mr Putin and Mr Yushchenko were last night polite rather than warm. Television pictures showed the two men facing each other around a white table inside the Kremlin. There was no sign of coffee being served.
"We were always for and we will continue to consider that Russia is our strategic partner," said Mr Yushchenko. "That is why I would like to refute all the myths concerning our relationship that were spread in the political kitchen."
Mr Putin said: "There is a very high and deep degree of integration between branches and enterprises of our states."
The Russian president denied accusations by some Yushchenko supporters that Russia had interfered in Ukraine's political process: "Russia has never worked behind the scenes in post-Soviet countries," he said. "We hope that with you we will have the same trusting relationships as before." Asked about the choice of Ms Tymoshenko, Mr Putin said: "We must not estimate the new Ukrainian government until it has been fully formed."
What has not changed with this visit is Mr Yushchenko's determination, spelled out in his inauguration address on Sunday, to face the West, with European Union membership as the goal.
He seems certain to pull Ukraine out of the Customs Union, a trading block centred on Moscow that was created as a counterweight to the EU.
Without Ukraine, the pact is little more than Russia and its client states, including Belarus and Kazakhstan, a blow to the Kremlin's prestige.