Putin changed his mind about meeting with Tymoshenko

The visit to Ukraine of Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin, announced for October, will not take place. According to Kommersant-Ukraine, Putin refused to meet with Ukrainian Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko so as not to create the appearance of official Moscow's support for her during the presidential election campaign.

Statements that Putin would visit Ukraine in October were made on September 1 during a joint press conference between Putin and Tymoshenko following their meeting in Gdansk. The prime ministers of the two countries promised that they would hold a meeting of the committee on economic cooperation of the Russian-Ukrainian interstate commission headed by them in Kharkiv. "It is very important that our next meeting will take place in October, as we planned," Tymoshenko said at the time.

"Yulia Vladimirovna invited the Russian delegation to Kharkov in October. By this time we will prepare thoroughly, we will discuss these issues (trade and economic cooperation - Ed.) not on the go, but on Ukrainian soil," Putin confirmed her words.

Over the past two weeks, active preparations have been made for this meeting. However, a few days ago, the office of the Russian prime minister announced the rejection of the agreements reached.

Sources claim that the decision not to go to Kharkiv was taken in view of the presidential election campaign in Ukraine. "Vladimir Vladimirovich's frequent visits to Ukraine could be interpreted as signs of excessive support by official Moscow for one of the presidential candidates. We consider it unacceptable to create the appearance of such support. Considering that in November we will go to the SGP (Council of Heads of Government - Ed.) of the CIS, holding another meeting with Ms Tymoshenko would be redundant," explained a source briefed on the decision taken in Moscow.

During the presidential election campaign in 2004, Putin visited Kyiv twice, where he met with Prime Minister and presidential candidate Viktor Yanukovych. Then these trips were perceived as pre-election and made it possible to talk about the support of Yanukovych by official Moscow.