Related: Putin,Yushchenko meet after gas crisis

    BEIJING, Jan. 12 (Xinhuanet) -- The presidents of Russia and Ukraine Wednesday hailed a deal over a recent natural gas row as fair and "mutually beneficial."

Russian President Vladimir Putin(Right) and Ukrainian counterpart Viktor Yushchenko shake hands during a meeting in Astana, Kazakhstan, Wednesday, Jan. 11, 2006. (Xinhua/Reuters)

    Barely a week after Moscow and Kiev were accusing each other of theft and blackmail, Russian President Vladimir Putin and his Ukrainian counterpart, Viktor Yushchenko, were seen standing side by side at a news conference Wednesday in Astana, where the two leaders attended the inauguration of Kazakhstan's reelected President Nursultan Nazarbayev.

    Putin began the news conference by praising the deal, under which Ukraine will pay an average of $95 per 1,000 cubic meters for gas in 2006, nearly double the price it paid last year. Gazprom had demanded that Ukraine pay $230 instead.

    "This choice was made with full respect and taking the interests of both sides into account," Putin said.

    "I would like to say that we are very pleased that after many years of relations with Ukraine we finally have people in Kiev who do what they say," he said.

    Yushchenko said that the fierce dispute had even served a useful purpose, as the deal reached was "mutually beneficial" for Russia and Ukraine.

    He added that the deal would "get rid of suspicions that Russia sells gas to Ukraine for half of the price and that Ukraine pumps it farther for [the other] half of the price."

    Yushchenko's comments came a day after his government was thrown into turmoil by a parliamentary vote for the ouster of his Cabinet over the deal, with his former Orange Revolution ally Yulia Tymoshenko accusing him and his government of striking a deal that was unfavorable to Ukraine.

    On Jan. 1, Gazprom reduced gas supplies going through Ukraine, and spokesman Sergei Kupriyanov bluntly accused Ukraine of stealing Russian gas from the transit pipelines that deliver supplies to Europe through Ukrainian territory. Enditem

    (Agencies)