The deal extending Russia"s use of a naval...

The agreement, signed on Wednesday by Russian President Dmitry Medvedev and Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych, extends the lease on the Russian base in the port of Sevastopol for 25 years after the current lease expires in 2017, and may be further extended by another five years.

"As far as Russia is concerned, it is not only a question of the redeployment of the Black Sea Fleet or the construction of new coastal infrastructure, but also a broad array of issues related to understanding how friendly our neighbor is," Mikhail Zurabov said.

He said the new deal was important for eliminating the remaining "uncertainty" in relations between the two countries.

"We do not want to find ourselves in a situation of such high uncertainty and I don"t think our Ukrainian colleagues want that either," he said, adding that uncertainty was bad for the economy.

Russian President Dmitry Medvedev submitted the agreement to the Russian lower house of parliament, the State

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