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Mr Yanukovych is in Russia on a one-day working visit at Mr Putin’s invitation. 

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President of Russia Vladimir Putin: Mr President, it is a great pleasure to see you and to have this chance to discuss in an informal setting our bilateral relations, trade and economic ties, and our cooperation in the  Background information Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) CIS.

We have a traditionally broad range of ties that cover political contacts, economic relations and humanitarian cooperation. As we always say in such situations, we have plenty to discuss.

I am very happy to see you. Thank you for accepting our invitation and coming here. It makes me very happy that you were able to find time on a weekend to come. It is a pleasure to see you. Welcome!

President of Ukraine Viktor Yanukovych: Thank you, Mr President,

There is no such thing as a weekend when the opportunity comes up to discuss and settle various matters. Thank you for the invitation.

We flew over Sochi and it was very interesting to take a look at all the construction work going on. We realise that time is very limited.

It’s a very interesting project in its own right of course, and I understand very well that you have taken all the responsibility upon yourself. I know that you are giving this work a lot of attention.

Vladimir Putin: Nearly every day.

Viktor Yanukovych: As always, it will be my pleasure to hear what you have to say on the developments that have taken place since our last meeting. We do of course have plenty to discuss.

All of the issues regarding our bilateral relations are of great interest to both countries, and so I hope that we will go over everything traditionally on our agenda today and keep moving slowly forward.

Vladimir Putin: Thank you. It is good to hear that you had the chance to see for yourself the scale of all the work underway here in Sochi.

Of course, this creates some problems for the people here at the moment, especially for holidaymakers and city residents, but our hope is that when all of this is finished, people will feel the benefits and will be proud that they live in or come to enjoy the services of a world-class resort town that works effectively and can take people winter or summer. 

This is thus a project designed not just for the present, but for future generations too. I will tell you in more detail about everything we are doing here.

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