Russia"s State Duma has welcomed Ukrainian...

On Tuesday, Yanukovych told the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe"s spring session that the famine could not be considered genocide as it was "a common tragedy of the Soviet people."

"We welcome the new constructive approach to historic problems, which was shown by [Ukrainian President] Viktor Yanukovych in Strasbourg yesterday. In return, the Russian parliamentarians are always open to a comprehensive dialogue, based on facts and historic truth, but not on emotions," Gryzlov said.

Yanukovych said considering the Great Famine (Holodomor) of the Ukrainian SSR in the 1930s as genocide as "incorrect and unfair" because it affected Russia, Belarus, Kazakhstan, and Ukraine.

Ukrainian nationalists say Russia, as the legal successor of the Soviet Union, should bear responsibility for the famine in which more than 3 million people perished in Ukraine.

Former Ukrainian president Viktor Yushchenko struggled for international recognition of the famine

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