KIEV, Feb. 9 ??“ A fair payment for renting Sevastopol and other Crimean ports by Russian naval fleet would probably be at $1.8 bln annually, a top security advisor to President Viktor Yushchenko said Thursday.

This is the first official assessment of possible annual rent payment that Ukraine may seek to charge Russia for stationing about 300 its Black Sea Fleet ships in Ukraine. Russia has been paying $97 mln annually since 1997.