The Yanukovich government has achieved good economic progress, he said in a live cast of three Ukrainian-based television companies-the government First National and the commercial Inter and 1+1 Studio.
The President described the Ukrainian economy as widely diversified, and a good example to follow.
Whatever issues might have darkened bilateral relations have come to a settlement, and essential political strides have been made. "We have coordinated all frontier issues, which boil down to complete recognition of [each other's] independence <...> We have settled the debt problem, too," said Mr. Putin, adding that the latter settlement made due account for either Party's national interests.
To re-create the Soviet Union is the last thing Russia wants. A united economic environment of Russia, Ukraine, Belarus and Kazakhstan, now in the making, is not aimed at that target. "No one is knocking up the USSR, and no one is out to do so-such attempts would be counter-productive," he emphasised.
"Many people in the post-Soviet area are bewailing the USSR, and they are right. But the USSR is no more, and we are to face the future proceeding from the life we are living now," said President Putin.
