The agreement on Russia"s Black Sea Fleet...
The agreement"s detractors in Ukraine are worried that extending the foreign naval base"s lease will undermine the sovereignty of their country. In Russia, opponents are mostly concerned about the agreement"s high price tag.
Presidents Dmitry Medvedev and Viktor Yanukovich have agreed that Kiev would get a 30% discount on supplies of Russian natural gas, and that this discount would count as Russia"s lease payment for the naval base in Sevastopol, a fee that is quite substantial.
Prime Minister Putin was quite outspoken when discussing the agreement at a news conference in Kiev. "In my opinion, the price we were asked to pay is absolutely exorbitant. For that money, I could have eaten up Mr Yanukovich together with your prime minister. No military base in the world is worth that much money. If you add up the amount to be paid over the 10 years the contract covers, it will come up to $40 or $45 billion. We could build several such bases for that amount."