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Russia: Yavlinskiy Says No Great Change in Ties With Ukraine Under Yushchenko

MOSCOW. Jan 24 (Interfax) - The leader of Russia's liberal Yabloko party, Grigory Yavlinsky, argued that relations between Russia and Ukraine would not undergo any great changes during Viktor Yushchenko's tenure as Ukrainian president.

"There will be roughly the same kind of situation as that which exists today. I can't see any objective problems in relations between the two countries," Yavlinsky said in an interview published on his personal website.

Russia "will have its voice" in the issue of Ukraine's entry to the European Union and NATO, but "decisions will be made in Kyiv and Brussels," he said. "I think that the period when all decisions about Ukraine were made in Moscow is over."

However, he argued that, if Ukraine does enter EU and NATO, it would still be in its interests to stay in Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) structures, such as the planned Common Economic Space, a union to bring together Ukraine, Russia, Belarus, and Kazakhstan.

"In the strategic respect, all this should serve to accumulate a potential that would enable Ukraine to move closer and closer to the European Union and plan its economic integration with the EU," he said.

"Incidentally, Russia has essentially the same tasks facing it. However, Ukraine has already become aware of its tasks while Russia has not yet done so at the political level," Yavlinsky said.

Asked whether Ukraine might export its "orange revolution" to Russia or any other CIS country, he said: "This is a matter for the very distant future. Eighty percent of all that has happened in Ukraine reflects the interests of the population, its sentiments, its attitude to what is happening. Russia did have good opportunities and a good potential. But it has come about somehow, for subjective and objective reasons, that Russia has failed to make full use of this chance."

"I don't actually think that there has been a revolution in Ukraine," Yavlinsky added. "A revolution is a forcible change of the constitution. Whereas (in Ukraine) the reverse has happened - people have safeguarded the current constitution and laws and have acted against falsification and lies, against those who were violating their rights, the constitution and laws. It was not a revolution but a restoration of lawful order, or, in other words, a 'Western renovation' of the country."

"Western renovation" is a term used in Russia for apartment refurbishment to meet Western standards.