Party of Regions faction leader Victor Yanukovych called it was an pure coincidence that the Russian State Duma issued a statement calling to terminate the friendship treaty with Ukraine when he was paying a visit to Russia on June4.
According to an UNIAN correspondent, Victor Yanukovych informed journalists about it after the session of the opposition government on Thursday.
“I was surprised: I got into a car and heard about it when I was driving. We began our meeting [with Russian Duma Speaker Boris Gryzlov - UNIAN] namely with this issue, and later discussed our inter-party issues”, Victor Yanukovych said.
The Party of Regions also added he asked B.Gryzlov how he should assess the statement of the Russian parliament. “I said – do you make surprises? I say: was it a kind of flowers or an orchestra for a party leader? We did not agree about that”.
Victor Yanukovych informed that B.Gryzlov supported his lawmakers, but at the same time, he agreed with the opinion of the Party of Regions leader that the tonality of relations between Ukraine and Russia should be different, and it is necessary refuse ultimatums and emotional statements.
In his opinion, for Ukraine and Russia pass to a constructive dialog, it is necessary to intensify sessions of different working groups.
As UNIAN reported earlier, the Russian parliament issued a statement on Wednesday saying that Ukraine`s accession to NATO would unilaterally terminate a friendship treaty with Russia. The State Duma, the lower house of parliament, adopted the statement to bring to the attention of the country`s leadership Ukraine`s `unfriendly` policies. The treaty in question is the bilateral Treaty on Friendship, Cooperation and Partnership, signed in 1997.
