[Presenter] Russia is going to closely monitor the presidential election in Ukraine and hopes that the continuity of power and friendly relations will be retained, Russian Federation Council speaker Sergey Mironov has said. Mironov arrived in Ukraine on a two-day visit today. He met [Ukrainian] President Leonid Kuchma, Prime Minister Viktor Yanukovych and parliamentary speaker Volodymyr Lytvyn. They discussed the prospects for boosting cooperation between Ukraine and Russia. Kuchma said that he was satisfied with the development of relations at all levels between the two states. Pavlo Tyrskyy has the details of the talks. [
[Correspondent] The Russian and Ukrainian parliaments have made a significant contribution to the development of interstate relations. [Kuchma]: I think that we all need to express satisfaction with the way the Ukrainian-Russian relations at the levels of the presidents, governments and our parliaments have been developing. In my view, interparliamentary commissions have begun to work. [Correspondent] The head of state mentioned the April talks between the two countries' members of parliament as part of the interparliamentary Ukraine and Russia's Strategic Partnership meeting in Crimea. The president said it was a good event which gave the sides the opportunity to get to know one another even better. [Kuchma, in Russian]: I think the event in Crimea was very good. Different political forces from the two sides were present. Everyone could openly express their views. The main thing is to be heard. [Correspondent] The sides discussed Ukrainian-Russian cooperation in the trade and economic area and interborder ties, stressing the need to remove barriers to a free movement of people, goods and services between the two countries. The deepening of economic cooperation was discussed at a meeting between the Russian MPs and Prime Minister Viktor Yanukovych. Mironov said that Russia was willing to cancel VAT on its exports to Ukraine and to switch to levying it according to the country-of-destination principle. He said he was glad that the presidents of the two countries have already ordered to end the negotiation process on the subject as soon as possible. Mironov has made another interesting statement. Russia is willing to increase its contribution to the An-70 project. The money to that end was provided for in the Russian budget for this year. As for the Single Economic Space [SES, an agreement signed between Ukraine, Russia, Belarus and Kazakhstan], Mironov said that the SES member states would be able to achieve more by joining effort than by working individually. The Russian MPs had the longest talks with their colleagues in the Supreme Council. The topics discussed were traditional - boosting cooperation between the two legislatures, exchanging experience and settling the existing problems of Russian-Ukrainian relations.