В.Путин.Начало встречи.

Meeting with Ukrainian President Viktor Yushchenko January 24, 2005 Moscow, Kremlin Начало встречи с Президентом Украины Виктором Ющенко 24 января 2005 года Москва, Кремль PRESIDENT VLADIMIR PUTIN: Dear Viktor Andreevich, dear colleagues, allow me to wish you a warm welcome to Moscow. We are very glad that the period of quite complex internal political processes has come to an end in Ukraine. We are glad that the situation is stabilising, and that a new government has appeared. And we expect that we will gradually develop relations with Ukraine, as has been the case up until now. We said many times that we would work with any leader voted for by the Ukrainian people. I would like to confirm that. Viktor Andreevich, this is not the first time we have met. We have known each other for a long time, and met when you were the Prime Minister of Ukraine. As you know, Russia never works behind the scenes in the post-Soviet area, even with the opposition we