Following the collapse of the Soviet Union, Russia and Ukraine have failed to demarcate the maritime border running through the Sea of Azov and the Kerch Strait, which links to the Black Sea.
Russia's Grigory Karasin said negotiations on the Azov-Kerch issue were advancing slowly. "But we do not expect the border, particularly in the Kerch Strait, to be delimited quickly and easily," he told Izvestia, a Russian daily.
A confrontation over the Tuzla Island in the Kerch Strait erupted in the summer of 2003 when Russia's attempt to construct a dam there provoked a bitter dispute with Ukraine, which accused its neighbor of encroaching on its territory.
Ukrainian President Viktor Yushchenko said last week his country was ready to resolve the Kerch Strait issue if Moscow recognized the Soviet-era administrative borderline as the state border.
Karasin said Ukraine's position stalled the negotiations and denied the existence of administrative borders in Soviet times.
"No administrative borders were established in the Soviet Union between the [Russian and Ukrainian] republics along the internal sea area," he said, adding that Russia could not recognize the border which Ukraine unilaterally established in 1999.
Ukraine has proposed changing the status of the Azov Sea from territorial to international waters, while Russia remains committed to the Kerch agreement signed in 2003 by President Vladimir Putin and his then Ukrainian counterpart Leonid Kuchma.
"We proceed from the principal provision of the 2003 agreement on cooperation in the use of the Sea of Azov and the Kerch Strait, which states that the sea areas are historically internal waters of Russia and Ukraine," the Russian deputy foreign minister said.
Russia advocates shared use of the Kerch Strait and the Sea of Azov, while Ukraine wants the sea to be clearly divided in accordance with international regulations.
Karasin said the Kerch Strait was economically important for Russia because more than 70% of all cargo shipments were made in Russia's interests across the strait.
"Considering the set of circumstances and historical factors, Russia would consider it best to jointly use the Kerch Strait, and possibly to establish a coordinated belt of territorial waters along the coastlines of both countries," the diplomat said.
Another disputed issue between the two nations is a naval base that Russia has been renting in Ukraine's Crimean autonomy on the Black Sea $98 million a year under bilateral agreements signed in the 1990s, which entitle its fleet to stay in Ukraine until 2017.
Since Western-leaning President Yushchenko came to power on the back of the "orange revolution" in Ukraine in 2004, his government has sought to expel Russia's military from Ukrainian territory, which it viewed as an obstacle for the country's ambition to join NATO and the European Union.
Russia's deputy foreign minister said Russia sought to secure conditions which would let its fleet operate normally and ensure Russia's military and political interests.
"The fleet fulfils such an important and specific mission that everything happening around it inevitably affects our relations," Karasin said.
After Viktor Yanukovych, who enjoyed Russia's support in the presidential race he lost to Yushchenko was appointed premier in August 2006, the two countries brokered a deal, and Ukraine's president confirmed in late November that his country would adhere to bilateral agreements on Russia's Black Sea Fleet.
Karasin said the two sides had improved cooperation in environmental measures at Russia's naval base, in determining the legal status of Russian servicemen and their families, and in revising the equipment used at the base.
"Unfortunately, however, inconsistencies in the military and political environment of the Black Sea Fleet's operation and in navigation services have long remained in place," Karasin said.
