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Interview on Ukrainian Television Channels UT-1, Inter and 1 1 October 27, 2004 Kiev, Ukraine Интервью украинским телеканалам «УТ-1», «Интер» и «1 1» 26 октября 2004 года Киев HOST: Hello everyone, good evening. This is a special programme Vladimir Putin, Live brought to you by Ukraines three national television channels Inter, 1 1 and UT-1. I, Alexander Kolody, am your host tonight and I am now at the telephone centre where your questions for the President of Russia have been coming in over the last few days and are still arriving now. A lot of questions have come in, but lets look at the numbers a bit later. People have been sending questions from every part of the country. On the screen you can see the telephone numbers that you can call if you have a question to ask. I remind you that all calls made within Ukrainian territory are free. We are broadcasting live and I would just like to say that at this point we have already received around 80,000 questions a huge figure. It is now my pleasure to hand over to my colleagues from the three national TV channels, Alexander, Vyacheslav and Olga. QUESTION: We are broadcasting live from central Kiev. The Russian President arrived here in the Ukrainian capital today to take part in the celebrations marking the 60th anniversary of the liberation of Ukraine from fascist occupation, and he has begun his visit by taking part in our programme, just as the salute is being fired, as chance would have it, almost right at this moment. Thank you very much Vladimir Vladimirovich [Putin] for accepting our invitation, and thank you to everyone who has already called or who is calling our studio right now. I remind you that you can put your questions to the Russian President not just by telephone. Our programme has opened a special Internet site at the address: . There has been a noticeable improvement in relations between Ukraine and Russia over the last year, especially in the economy. We no longer have any political problems of the kind that in the past have had peoples feelings running high. Could you tell us, why has this become possible only now, why is it precisely in 2004 that this breakthrough has come? PRESIDENT VLADIMIR PUTIN: Weve been working towards this for a long time. Just because positive developments in our relations have become evident now, it does not mean that this has all happened overnight as if at the wave of a magicians wand. I think that during the initial period following the collapse of the Soviet Union Russia had to come to the realisation that the states that emerged in the post-Soviet area were not quasi-Soviet formations but full-fledged, independent countries, and that they should be treated accordingly. Also, I recently met with Leonid Danilovich Kuchma at one of the CIS events, and he gave what I would call a very accurate description of the situation that emerged in many of the countries in the post-Soviet area. He said: we thought it would be enough to stand up to Moscow, move away from Russia, and we would be showered with dollars, roubles and every imaginable pleasure and would be rich and happy. But nothing of the sort happened, and could not happen. Both we in Russia and our partners, including Ukraine, have realised that we all have our own national interests, and that we can further these national interests by working with each other. The most effective way to pursue our national interests is to work together. Having realised this, we have begun to work, and to work more productively. If you look at what we have done over this time, we have built up not only our economic relations. We have also taken important political steps towards each other. We have settled all our border issues. What this amounts to is full and absolute recognition of and respect for Ukraines sovereignty, not only as concerns its land borders, but also its sea borders. There are still some details to be worked out at expert level, but on the whole, the main issues have been settled. We have sorted out the debt commitment question. We have found a solution that both improves Ukraines balance, broadly speaking, while at the same time ensures that Russias economic interests do not suffer. We have found solutions to all the problems that had caused complications for our relations. Of course, there are inevitably some kind of disputes and problems between neighbours who work so closely together in so many areas, this has always been the case and always will be. But this is not the issue, the issue is how we go about settling these problems, even the most hotly disputed and complex issues. Today we have the kind of relations that enable us to find solutions to every problem to the benefit of both our countries.
