Prague/Kiev (from our correspondent) - Controversial Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych will come to Prague at the invitation of his Czech counterpart Milos Zeman. RFE/RL reported that Yanukovych will visit the Czech Republic in April this year.
The Czech president's spokesman Jiri Ovcacek confirmed the report. "Mr President was in Ukraine for an official visit in October last year and he used this opportunity to invite Viktor Yanukovych to visit Prague," Ovcacek told Aktualne.cz.
Zeman's chancellor Hynek Kmonicek told RFE/RL that the invitation for Yanukovych to visit the Czech Republic had already been sent to Kiev. The Ukrainian president will attend the European Union Eastern Partnership summit in Prague, added Kmonicek.
Yanukovych will be in Prague between April 23 and 24, a source told Aktualne.cz.
Zeman visited Ukraine last fall, shortly before the European Union Eastern Partnership summit in Vilnius, Lithuania, in November. During the summit, Yanukovych refused to sign an association agreement with the European Union, sparking an ongoing wave of pro-European Union protests in some parts of Ukraine, predominantly in the western half of the country and the capital Kiev.
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Yanukovych scrapped the association agreement in order not to harm Ukraine's trade links with Russia.
Some of Zeman's advisers have close links to Russian business circles, and Zeman himself is not trying to hide his pro-Russian views.
