Putin spokesman: customs union not discussed

KIEV, Ukraine (AP) The presidents of Russia and Ukraine didn't discuss Ukraine joining a Russian-led customs union, one of the issues driving large protests now in their third week in Kiev, at a meeting this week, their representatives said Saturday.

The protests started after Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych backed away from signing a long-expected agreement with the European Union to deepen economic ties. Russia has pressured Ukraine to join a trade bloc also including Kazakhstan and Belarus. Protesters denounce attempts to bring Ukraine back into Moscow's orbit and contend Yanukovych aims to sell out Ukraine to Russia.

Russian President Vladimir Putin and Yanukovych met Friday in Sochi, the Black Sea resort where the 2014 Winter Games will be held. Details were few, but Putin spokesman Dmitry Peskov was quoted by Russian news agencies as saying Saturday that "the question of Ukraine's possibly joining the customs union was not discussed in Sochi." Yanukovych's office later issued a similar statement.

Peskov said the presidents paid special attention to "cooperation in the energy sphere." Ukraine's dependence on Russian natural gas gives Moscow considerable leverage, and economically struggling Ukraine has sought to negotiate lower prices.

Former Georgian president Mikheil Saakashvili, who came to power during 2003 mass protests in 2003 that prefigured Ukraine's Orange Revolution of 2004, met on Saturday with Ukrainian opposition leader Viltali Klitschko and lashed out at Moscow.

"What's happening today in Ukraine is the seizure by the political raiders of Putin's Russia of a sovereign state in the center of Europe," Saakashvili said, according to the Interfax news agency.

A vice president of the European People's Party, a continent-wide grouping of center-right parties, said in Kiev that Yanukovych "from the very beginning didn't want to sign it; he was thinking about Moscow."

Also Saturday, the Interior Ministry said police have placed the Kiev broadcasting center under heavy guard, saying the move was necessary after hearing protesters express intentions to march on the facility and block access to the building.

The center houses the studios of several TV channels, including the national First Channel, which on Saturday was hosting a show featuring an array of government ministers.

Snow and strong winds swept Kiev on Saturday and the crowd at Independence Square, the main protest site and home to a round-the clock tent camp, numbered only several thousand. But organizers have called for a massive rally on Sunday. A similar call a week ago brought out a throng estimated at more than 300,000.