MOSCOW – Today the ethnic Russian new prime-minister of Ukraine, Yuri Ekhanurov, visited Russia. His visit has brought new warmth into the Russian-Ukrainian relationship.
Visiting Russia after being appointed for a high-ranking government position has been always a Ukrainian tradition. The only person who didn’t get a chance to visit was former Prime Minister Yulia Timoshenko. Russia’s General Prosecutor still has a few criminal cases open against Mrs. Timoshenko. They are very questionable, because Timoshenko was supposedly bribing Russian officials in order to conduct her business. Those Russian officials have never been prosecuted for their part in alleged corruption.
Yuri Ekhanurov is a Russian national, and is more of a technocrat than an independent personality. However, these work to his benefit, because Yuschenko doesn’t need someone politically powerful next to him, and there are many problems in the Ukrainian administration that require the attention of a good bureaucrat. The Russian Prime Minister Fradkov is the same kind of non-personable bureaucrat, who looks good next to the more charismatic Putin.
The new PM spent two hours in a private meeting with Mikhail Fradkov. He used this time to reassure the Kremlin that Russian investments in Ukraine are safe. You would wonder why he was communicating with Russia's Prime Minister on the topics of the business sector. Well, because Russia's biggest businesses, which are oil and gas, are owned and controlled by the Kremlin’s Gazprom and Rosneft.
The meeting with the Russian Prime Minister was supposed to be the end of the program, but at the last moment Putin decided to meet the new Ukrainian PM at his country-side residence. When Ekhanurov got there, Putin just talked to Eckhanurov's boss Yuschenko on the phone. The conversation between the Russian president and Ukrainian PM was warm and cheerful. Again Ukrainians proved their excellent political saavy and desire for better relations with Russia. The reported Ukrainian political crisis appears to be over. Instead of scaring the neighbors, Ukraine has managed to stay friends with the West and re-married Russia.
