KIEV (AFP) - Russian President Vladimir Putin met with his Ukrainian counterpart Leonid Kuchma just over a week before the former Soviet republic's second round of presidential elections, where he is openly backing the pro-Moscow candidate.
Putin met Kuchma -- whose decade-old reign is coming to an end, with him naming Prime Minister Viktor Yanukovich as his preferred successor -- in the Crimean resort town of Kerch.
News reports said the talks, officially scheduled for the two presidents' formal signature of a Black Sea travel accord, were also attended by Yanukovich, and that Putin at one stage warmly embraced that prime minister and told him "good luck with the elections."
Yanukovich was narrowly edged out by pro-Western candidate Viktor Yushchenko in the first October 31 ballot despite open support from both Kuchma and Putin, who also visited Ukraine on the eve of the first round vote.
He spent three days at Putin's side, dominating television news coverage, which avoided showing Yushchenko during the visit.
Putin's first visit also infuriated Yushchenko's supporters, who views the Russian leader's visit as meddling in Ukraine's state affairs.
"It is clear that the presence of Putin, who has popularity in Ukraine, is being used to boost Yanukovich's campaign," said political analyst Olexander Dergachyov.
But in a psychologically-boosting upset, Yushchenko won 39.87 percent of the vote against Yanukovich's 39.32.
Political analysts said that with two trips to Ukraine, a win by Yushchenko would deliver a personal blow to the Russian leader -- who already has complicated relations with Georgian President Mikhail Saakashvili on Russia's southern border -- and perhaps give life to opposition movements in the currently pro-Moscow republics of Central Asia.
"Some have already speculated that (by visiting Ukraine Putin) was switching his allegiances to Yushchenko, but I doubt that this is the case," Vladimir Malenkovich, a Russian political analyst, told Moscow Echo radio.
"I think that Putin's visit to Ukraine is a bid to give Yanukovich a last minute push," Malenkovich said.
"I am not personally sure how much of a boost he actually can give to Yanukovich now, but it is still a symbolic move in favor of the prime minister."
In another sign that the pro-Moscow camp in Ukraine is starting to fear that the tide is turning against it, Yanukovich gave in to pressure from opposition groups and finally agreed to publicly debate Yushchenko before the second-round vote.
The debate has been tentatively scheduled for Monday and is to last for 100 minutes.
Observers from the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) said the first round vote not only failed to meet international norms but even marked a rollback in the country's democratic development because of open bias in the state-controlled media for the pro-Moscow candidate.
The vote was also criticized by the United States, which has lent Yushchenko its tacit support.
Yushchenko has campaigned under the promise of winning former Soviet Ukraine membership in the European Union and even the Brussels-based NATO military alliance, and has the support of Ukraine's burgeoning youth groups.
But Moscow fears the expansion of both NATO and the EU up to its border, trying to keep its influence over former Soviet republics, referred to in Russia as the "near abroad."
11/12/2004 - 18:50 GMT - AFP