Ukraine
Ukrainian parliament fights over ratification of Russian deal
Ukrainian lawmakers got rough, threw eggs and smoke bombs, but still voted in favor of deal with Russia ensuring cheaper natural gas for Ukraine in exchange for the lease of a key naval base to Moscow.
The Ukrainian parliament in Kiev has ratified a deal with Russia extending the Kremlin's lease for a key naval base in Ukraine's Crimea, even as bitterly divided lawmakers scuffled over a giant Ukrainian flag in the middle of the parliamentary chamber, and smoke bombs made the room hazy.
Several black umbrellas protected parliament speaker Volodymyr Litvyn from the paper wads and eggs being thrown at him, while other deputies held their noses or put on masks against the smoke.
The deal is the first concrete sign of the more friendly approach to Russia under newly-elected President Viktor Yanukovych. The agreement, also ratified by Russia's lower house of parliament, extends the Russian navy's lease at the port of Sevastopol for 25 years after the current lease expires in 2017.
The deal was signed by Yanukovych and Russian President Dmitry Medvedev last week and has been heavily criticized by supporters of Yanukovych's pro-Western predecessor Viktor Yushchenko. Outside the parliament building, they shouted "Death to traitors!" and "Crimea is ours."
Russia willing to pay big money base lease
In exchange for the lease extension, Russia is giving Ukraine a 30 percent discount on Russian natural gas imports, a pledge worth some 30 billion euros ($40 billion) over 10 years.
Earlier on Tuesday, Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin held talks with Ukrainian leaders in Kiev at which he offered an unprecedented nuclear cooperation deal. He admitted to reporters that the gas deal had hurt the Russian budget.
"It's going to be a burden, of course. And a major one," he said. "The amount that this has cost us is really something else. For this kind of money I could have eaten Yanukovych and your prime minister together."
Russia's supply of natural gas to Ukraine has been cut three times in recent years over disagreements on payments from Ukraine. European Union officials stepped in during the most recent standoff in 2009 when Moscow's decision to halt gas flowing through Ukrainian pipes led to shortages in the EU.
Russia and Norway strike deal over oil-rich Barents Sea region
Moscow and Oslo have struck a deal that equally divides the long-contested Barents Sea between them. The agreement ends decades of negotiation over the inhospitable area believed to be rich in oil and gas deposits.
The leaders of Russia and Norway voiced satisfaction over a compromise that ends 40 years of dispute over their maritime frontiers.
"This solution is about more than a border line under the ocean. It is about developing good neighborly relations," Norwegian Prime Minister Jens Stoltenberg said at a joint press with Russian President Dmitry Medvedev in Oslo. "It will unite much more than divide, and it will become a bridge to cooperation," he added.
Disputes over the sea began in 1970 between Norway and the Soviet Union, subsequently continuing with Russia. The 176,000 square kilometre (67,950 square mile) zone lies off their Arctic coastlines.
"I am glad that we have turned this page," Medvedev told the press conference. "If problems are not solved definitively, then there is friction which presents a strain," he said.
Riches beneath the surface
Projects are already under way to exploit natural resources on both sides of the frontier, involving Russian energy giant Gazprom and the Norwegian fuel supplier Statoil.
Canada, Denmark, Norway, Russia and the United States have yet to agree on how to share the wider Arctic seabed, which is estimated by the US Geological Survey to hold 90 billion barrels of oil as well as 30 percent of the world's undiscovered gas resources.
The need to find a resolution has increased as new technology and global warming make the deposits more accessible.
(Published DW - World - April 27, 2010)