Ukraine's new president could regain control over the separatist-controlled east of his country within months and get cheap gas and major investment from Russia if he repairs ties with Moscow, the Kremlin's closest ally in Ukraine said. Viktor Medvedchuk, a prominent figure in Ukraine's Russia-leaning opposition, outlined the prospect in an interview before a presidential election runoff in Ukraine on Sunday which polls show political novice Volodymyr Zelenskiy should easily win.

He said the Kremlin was keen to know more about Zelenskiy, a 41-year-old Russian-speaking TV comedian who has no political experience, to understand if he is someone it could do a deal with, something it failed to do with incumbent Petro Poroshenko who polls show will be soundly defeated by Zelenskiy. "They don't have any expectations in Moscow," he said. "They want to see what happens afterward, who will be in his (Zelenskiy's) entourage, and what he will do and with whom." A Ukrainian citizen, Medvedchuk does not represent Russia, but his words carry weight due to his close friendship with President Vladimir Putin and track record as a go-between between the two nations. Medvedchuk said he had known Putin for 19 years, that the Russian leader is godfather to his daughter, and that he had held talks with Putin in Moscow as recently as two weeks ago.

The Kremlin has made clear it will be glad to see the back of Poroshenko but has not commented on Zelenskiy, saying only that it is watching candidates' statements closely and hopes any new president can implement a peace deal on Donbass, eastern Ukraine, which has been under separatist control since 2014. When asked about Medvedchuk's advice for Ukraine's new president on Friday, Dmitry Peskov, a spokesman for Putin, said he greatly respected Medvedchuk, calling him "very active" and "important" when it came to his humanitarian work as an intermediary between Moscow and Kiev. Peskov, who confirmed Medvedchuk's recent meeting with Putin, said Ukraine didn't need to strike a specific deal with Putin or Moscow, but did need take steps to build mutually beneficial relations with Russia. When asked what expectations the Kremlin had of Zelenskiy, Peskov said: "We would always like to hope for the best. Of course we want to hope that the person who is elected Ukraine's president will not be from the party of war. And we want to hope that this person will take a different perspective on relations between Ukraine and Russia.” Testing the waters Medvedchuk, who said he had only met Zelenskiy once "eight or nine years ago" and had no contacts with him, appears to be testing the waters on Moscow's behalf. Medvedchuk has brokered prisoner exchanges between Russia and Ukraine and held talks in Moscow last month with Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev about gas prices. At that meeting, he said he and an ally secured a pledge of a 25 percent discount for Russian gas if Kiev agreed to resume direct gas purchases from energy giant Gazprom instead of via European countries as it has done since the end of 2015. Russia's main focus is returning separatist-held Donbass to Kiev on its own terms. This could help Moscow win some relief from sanctions imposed by the European Union over its 2014 annexation of Crimea and its backing for the pro-Russian Donbass uprising.

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