KIEV — Russia and Ukraine have ended a mutual "blacklist" of undesirable visitors from the other country in a further sign of improving relations, a Ukrainian newspaper said Tuesday.
On the Russian side, they include Mayor Yury Luzhkov, who was barred in May 2008 from entering Ukraine after calling for the Crimean port of Sevastopol to be returned to Russia, and State Duma Deputy Konstantin Zatulin, whom the Ukrainian government accused of trying to stir up ethnic violence and of working against Ukraine's territorial integrity, Ekonomicheskiye Izvestiya reported.
Both men were blacklisted by the administration of former President Viktor Yushchenko.
But President Viktor Yanukovych, elected in February, has made improving ties with Russia a priority and taken several steps to tilt policy back toward Moscow.
Russia matched Ukraine's actions by barring several Ukrainian politicians, including Petro Poroshenko, who was briefly foreign minister under Yushchenko, the newspaper said.
Luzhkov quickly benefited from the lifting of the ban to visit Ukraine over the weekend to join in birthday celebrations for Yanukovych, who turned 60 last Friday.
A spokesman for the SBU state security service would not comment on the issue but denied the existence of "blacklists."
"We do not have any official statement about the lists of people banned from entering Ukraine," SBU spokeswoman Maryna Ostapenko said.
Other prominent Russians barred by Ukraine in the past include Liberal Democratic Party leader Vladimir Zhirinovsky, who was blacklisted in 2006 after comments he made over a Russian-Ukrainian gas dispute, although the ban was lifted a year later.