Yuliya Timoshenko and Vladimir Putin

Prime Minister of Ukraine Yulia Tymoshenko and Prime Minister of Russia Vladimir Putin during the meeting within the frameworks of the session of the Council of Heads of Governments of states – participants of the Commonwealth of Independent States in Astana (Kazakhstan), on Friday, May 22, 2009. After the meeting with the Prime Minister of Russia, Yulia Tymoshenko said to journalists that she believes it is necessary to develop cooperation of Ukraine and Russia in order to overcome consequences of the crisis in both countries. She underlined that this topic was raised during the talk with the Prime Minister of Russia. “We see, where we should cooperate, how we should build relations in order the crisis, which beating considerably on Ukraine and Russia, alleviates in our cooperation, and begins declining step by step. In spite of some optimism, we believe that 2009 and 2010 years will be crisis years, and our countries have to be ready for this. In our cooperation - in renewal of cooperation, renewal of bilateral trade I see those elements to counteraction to crisis and those elements of strengthening of our countries” said Yu. Tymoshenko. She underlined that today’s talk with V. Putin was constructive and giving a hope for development of the cooperation of this kind. Photo by Aleksandr Prokopenko/POOL/UNIAN