Ukraine’s embattled President Viktor Yanukovych returned to protest-hit Kiev on Saturday after holding crisis talks with Russian counterpart and ally Vladimir Putin about a suspended Moscow bail out loan.
The chat late on Friday on the sidelines of the opening ceremony of the Winter Olympic Games in Russia’s Black Sea resort of Sochi came amid growing pressure from the opposition on Yanukovych to cede some of his broad powers and appoint a new pro-Western government.
Neither Russian nor Ukrainian officials disclosed the details of the two leaders’ conversation except to say that it was brief and held at Sochi’s Fisht stadium where the Games’ opening ceremony was held. “They had a conversation at the stadium,” a Ukrainian administration spokesman said by telephone. “There was no official bilateral meeting. That was not a part of (the president’s) programme,” the spokesman said.
Yanukovych had been expected to discuss with Putin the fate of a $15-billion Russian bailout whose delivery has been effectively frozen pending his decision on a new government.
The ex-Soviet country of 46 million was thrown into its worst crisis since independence in November when Yanukovych ditched an historic EU pact under Russian pressure in a stunning reversal that sparked violent protests that have claimed several lives.