Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin will...

On Wednesday Russian President Dmitry Medvedev and Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych signed the agreement on extending Russia"s use of a naval base in Ukraine"s Crimea, extending the lease on the Russian base in the port of Sevastopol for 25 years after the current lease expires in 2017, which may be further extended by another five years.

Its ratification was scheduled for April 27 during a plenary session of the Russian lower house of parliament, the State Duma and Ukraine"s parliament is due to hold a session on the same day.

There has, however, been strong opposition to the deal in Ukraine and it is not clear that it will in fact be ratified on Tuesday.

MOSCOW, April 25 (RIA Novosti)