Putin praised by leaders of ex-Soviet states
He pointedly decided to snub a G8 summit in the United States this weekend and instead made the one-day conference of post-Soviet leaders the first meeting with foreign heads of state of his new presidential term.
Putin, who once called the 1991 breakup of the Soviet Union "the greatest geopolitical catastrophe of the 20th century", called for more robust cooperation among members of regional alliances.
At meetings of the Commonwealth of Independent States and Collective Security Treaty Organisation, two organizations that group much of former the USSR, Putin hosted his first major event as president, taking advice from some of the longest serving autocrats of the post-Soviet world.
The Russian President Vladimir Putin won praise from leaders of former Soviet republics on Tuesday and called for closer integration among the now-independent states once ruled by Moscow.
A decree issued hours after his swearing-in called for closer integration of the ex-Soviet space a "key foreign policy direction" and reiterated plans for a Eurasian Economic Union, based on a Customs Union with Kazakhstan and Belarus.
The real prize for Putin would be Ukraine, which has sought to balance relations between Moscow and the European Union.
Putin made a fresh pitch to Ukraine in a meeting with President Viktor Yanukovich, whose government's jailing of opposition leader Yulia Tymoshenko has caused a serious rift with Europe.
"For us to be stronger - you know my position - it is necessary to achieve a higher degree of integration," Putin told Yanukovich. "Which is of course, a sovereign choice of our partners."
Putin, who once called the 1991 breakup of the Soviet Union "the greatest geopolitical catastrophe of the 20th century", called for more robust cooperation among members of regional alliances.
At meetings of the Commonwealth of Independent States and Collective Security Treaty Organisation, two organizations that group much of former the USSR, Putin hosted his first major event as president, taking advice from some of the longest serving autocrats of the post-Soviet world.
The Russian President Vladimir Putin won praise from leaders of former Soviet republics on Tuesday and called for closer integration among the now-independent states once ruled by Moscow.
A decree issued hours after his swearing-in called for closer integration of the ex-Soviet space a "key foreign policy direction" and reiterated plans for a Eurasian Economic Union, based on a Customs Union with Kazakhstan and Belarus.
The real prize for Putin would be Ukraine, which has sought to balance relations between Moscow and the European Union.
Putin made a fresh pitch to Ukraine in a meeting with President Viktor Yanukovich, whose government's jailing of opposition leader Yulia Tymoshenko has caused a serious rift with Europe.
"For us to be stronger - you know my position - it is necessary to achieve a higher degree of integration," Putin told Yanukovich. "Which is of course, a sovereign choice of our partners."
Sources:
Reuters
Reuters
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