Transcript of the beginning of the meeting:
Vladimir Putin: President Yanukovych, ladies and gentlemen,
Allow me to welcome you to the Government House in Moscow.
There's no need to say how much relations between Russia and Ukraine matter to us, but first of all, I would like to congratulate you personally for winning the election and assuming the office of the president of Ukraine. I must have been the first person to congratulate you on the night after the election. I wish you every success.
The economic situation in Russia, Ukraine and the world in general is complicated. Our trade fell sharply by 40% last year, to $22.9 billion. Nevertheless, cooperation between us remains very significant and critical to the Ukrainian and Russian economies.
We both know that Russian and Ukrainian industries such as mechanical engineering - in which you are an expert - aircraft construction, the energy industry and agriculture are interconnected. There is much to be done to make up for lost time and restore what has been destroyed in our relations.
We are very happy to see you in Moscow. Welcome!
Viktor Yanukovich: Thank you. Prime Minister Putin, distinguished colleagues and friends, we travelled to Moscow with the knowledge that much was lost in our relations over the last five years. Many industries and the overall economies of Ukraine and Russia suffered from this. In the last two years, the global financial crisis also undeniably had an impact.
Compared to Russia, the economy of Ukraine fell much more sharply. The gross domestic product of Ukraine fell twice as much as that of Russia.
And if we look at the structure of our economies (they are very similar to one another), we can say, as Prime Minister Putin correctly observed, that sectors where we have the most cooperation and technological interdependence have suffered most of all.
We also know very well that there is a way out of this situation, which will depend on how well we work together.
I am confident that the economic crisis in Ukraine and Russia has opened our eyes to many issues, and this makes our joint work together even more valuable.
Awareness of this issue has grown among both the Ukrainian and Russian peoples. We could not previously have imagined that what has happened in the past five years was possible.
We have turned the page on this era, and during the election campaign, the Ukrainian people voted for change in their country. More than 70% of the electorate voted for candidates who put forward programmes offering change.
Among the more sensitive issues was that of Ukrainian-Russian relations, both economic and in the cultural domain. During the election campaign, people asked simple questions, cursed politicians in general and said, "Don't prevent us, the people of Russia and Ukraine, from living in peace."
That was the true state of affairs. And of course, now the domestic and foreign policies of Ukraine will be seriously adjusted to take into account the perspective of the Ukrainian people. Today at a meeting with Russian President Dmitry Medvedev, I said that we want to make major changes in our relations.
Vladimir Putin: Join the Customs Union.
Viktor Yanukovych: I remember very well when you and I, Prime Minister Putin, worked together on the common economic space. We discussed this issue recently. I remember how we conceived some terms, for example "varying-speed," and what else was there? There were some others.
As I understand it, Russia has made great progress and today has entered a post-crisis period. I shared the sentiments of the people at the United Russia congress in St Petersburg and heard the optimism in the reports of the Russian president and prime minister.
Today, we have many moral obligations to the Ukrainian people, if only for the fact that during this period Russia has adjusted living standards four times, raising salaries, pensions and public assistance. Ukraine has not even done so once. In terms of salaries, we are behind Russia by approximately 30%, and in terms of pensions by 50%. And now the new government in Ukraine is faced with a difficult task - at minimum, we must catch up to Russia. And we hope that we will be able to do this with your help.
We're now in a difficult period when we have to form a coalition, and we have a great desire to create an effective system of government, which had been all but destroyed in these last five years, as soon as possible. And the chaos that resulted precipitated Ukraine's decline during the crisis. This is in contrast to Russia, where the situation was stable the entire time.
You learn from your mistakes, as they say, but this kind of learning is difficult for everybody, the Ukrainian people included. I think that the Russian people perhaps do not yet fully understand the value of Russia's stability. I mean this seriously. I am firmly convinced that there are agent provocateurs and political haranguers everywhere, and that Russia has quite a few of them, too. But if we could add a few Ukrainian political haranguers to yours, you would understand what political harangues are all about.
Vladimir Putin: Thank you.
Viktor Yanukovych: I do not wish this for you, but as a popular saying goes, everything is relative.
Vladimir Putin: You'd better send us some salo instead.
Viktor Yanukovych: We haven't seen this process through to the end yet; Ukraine is still troubled by political turmoil. But I think we will find solutions to these problems soon.
The government is recruiting professionals who know what responsibility means. I have confidence that we will fix things.
I believe our successful cooperation is critical to Ukraine, Russia and Europe, since the future of our partners in Europe and in the world at large depends on it in many respects. Today, economies are intertwined very closely. The world financial crisis has shown that an economic downturn cannot be good for some and bad for others. The ties that connect the world's economies and the interdependence of many countries prove that proper coordination and cooperation within each country... Every government must mobilise all its resources to deal with the recession effectively.
This is especially true for countries with enormous economic, shall we say, interconnectedness and interdependence (including technological interdependence), such as Ukraine and Russia.
Prime Minister Putin, as soon as the Ukrainian government is formed - and I hope this will happen in the near future - we will have to conduct a very serious analysis of what has been going on. We must eliminate all previous distortions and artificial barriers and look upon our future relations from the perspective of modernising our economies. We must capitalise on our strengths.
There is much from which Ukraine could learn, including Russia's experience overcoming the downturn, and Russian technology. We must review in detail the various areas where the Ukrainian and Russian economies are connected, and adopt joint measures and draft appropriate programmes. We all know that we have no big secrets from each other.
We understand where we can make rapid breakthroughs. We can develop a long-term strategy to address these issues jointly. I would like to consider some of them today.
I would like to inform you that we agreed to maintain our interstate commission at the presidential level. Our governments and intergovernmental commissions will continue their work as well. We will try our best to create the necessary conditions for fruitful, mutually beneficial and effective cooperation based on our prospects for growth.
We understand that Ukraine and Russia should be developing as quickly as possible. We must not fall behind other countries, but catch up with our international partners, improving our countries' competitive edge.
Therefore, modernisation, technological progress (including in nanotechnology) and a model for economic development for our countries based on innovation and investment are sure ways to success.
Thank you.
Vladimir Putin: Mr Yanukovych, you mentioned the role of stability. I would like to add that Russians are aware of the value of stability in the modern world and in our country in particular, especially during the downturn.
We know that Ukraine has been affected more that Russia, but the Russian economy has faced serious problems and hardships as well, suffering a decline in production and salaries. An overall rise in real incomes was made possible only due to a slight increase in pensions and incomes in government-funded industries. However, salaries decreased in the overall economy.
As you mentioned, we continued, or rather began, pension reform, increasing pensions significantly. This year they will be raised by 46%. We have recently made a decision to index pensions by 6.3% on April 1.
We know that in many European countries with developed market economies, these sorts of decisions would be untenable during a downturn, and pensions and salaries had to be frozen instead.
I would like to emphasise that our macroeconomic indicators are also improving. If we had 13.3% inflation in 2008, it fell to only 8.8% in 2009. That's not bad at all. This year's target is 7% to 7.5%, or maybe even less. We'll see whether this is possible. But this is our target.
Without a doubt, we must try our best to restore what we have lost in the past five years and define promising areas for development. And these promising areas are mostly in innovation. We have good foundations in both Ukraine and Russia. And this does not just have to do with energy, although here too we can build good, civilised relations and move forward, working together and developing, including in the markets of third-party countries.
So allow me to say once again how happy we are to see you, and that I hope we'll be able to discuss most of these issues in detail. We are looking forward to the formation of a coalition in the Ukrainian parliament and consequently the Government of Ukraine, our main partner with which we hope to develop good, constructive relations.
I know that a meeting of the interstate commission has been scheduled. And I sincerely hope that Ukraine will achieve the stability you mentioned as soon as possible.
We have a major interest in the successful and sustained development of one of our major partners in politics, the economy and trade. Not least because the future of large companies and even some sectors of the Russian economy depends on this development.