Leonid Kuchma and Boris Yeltsin

Russian former President Boris Yeltsin, left, gestures as he talks to Ukrainian President Leonid Kuchma during their meeting in Ukraine's Ivano-Frankivsk region, 599 km (371 miles) west of the capital Kiev, Saturday, Nov. 15, 2003. Yeltsin renewed assurances in his long standing friendship despite a recent border crisis that slightly damaged relations between the two former Soviet Republics. Photo by Valery Solovyov / presidential press-service / UNIAN