MOSCOW, March 21 (RIA Novosti) - A rescheduled date for a visit by Ukraine's president, originally planned for March 21 and postponed due to the recent tragedies in Russia, is being discussed, the Russian foreign minister said.
Putin declared March 21 a day of mourning following a powerful explosion in a West Siberian mine March 19, which killed 106 people, a plane crash on the Volga, where six people were killed and more than 20 injured, and a fire in a retirement home in southern Russia, where 62 people died.
"Viktor Yushchenko's visit was not canceled," Sergei Lavrov said.
The leaders were to sign an action plan for 2007-2008 after months of disputes over sensitive issues, including the Russian Black Sea Fleet's deployment in Ukraine, the post-Soviet dispute between Moldova and its breakaway region of Transdnestr, where Moscow and Kiev have mediated, as well as economic and energy issues.
But the popular daily Kommersant suggested Wednesday the visit may have been postponed over Moscow's reluctance to thereby back Yushchenko in his standoff with more pro-Russian Prime Minister Viktor Yanukovych and his party dominating Ukrainian parliament.
Yushchenko had requested a meeting with Mikhail Fradkov, the Russian premier, the speakers of both houses of parliament, leading media editors, and to give a speech at Moscow State University, Kommersant said.
The action plan was to be signed by Lavrov and Ukraine's acting Foreign Minister Volodymyr Ohryzko, the paper said.
By receiving Ohryzko, the Kremlin would have also signaled support for Yushchenko's Western-leaning protege whose candidacy was again rejected by the Supreme Rada Tuesday, the daily said.
A week ahead of the visit to Russia, Yushchenko welcomed Washington's plans to deploy its missile defense elements in Central Europe and issued a separate statement hailing NATO's role in world affairs, the issues that have unnerved Moscow and strained its relations with the West.
After a telephone conversation between the Russian and Ukrainian leaders late Tuesday, Ukraine's presidential press office said Yushchenko would nominate another candidate for foreign minister, Arseniy Yatsenyuk.
The daily describes Yatsenyuk as Yushchenko's man and an advocate of the country's Euro-Atlantic integration.
