Yanukovych defends Russian naval base extension
Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych has defended his decision to grant a 25-year lease extension to Russia's Black Sea Fleet base in Crimea.
In return for the extension, Moscow reduced the price Ukraine pays for Russian natural gas by 30 percent in a deal announced on April 21 after talks between Yanukovych and his Russian counterpart, Dmitry Medvedev, in the Ukrainian city of Kharkiv.
Speaking today at a news conference in Kyiv, Yanukovych said the agreement was key to Ukraine's economic survival.
"The main reason [for reaching a new gas deal] was because Ukraine had [an earlier] 10-year gas contract that was driving us into the grave," Yanukovych said. "That was the main problem. We had to find a way out."
Cash-strapped Ukraine had been paying over $300 per 1,000 cubic meters of gas under an agreement negotiated last year by the government of former Ukrainian President Viktor Yushchenko, whose pro-Western policies had angered Moscow.
The lease extension has drawn strong criticism from Ukraine's opposition, which sees Russia's Black Sea Fleet as a hostile presence on Ukrainian territory.
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