Protests at utility hikes spread across Russia

After a spate of protest rallies rocked Russian cities over the long weekend, experts and sociologists expect more to come. And a key trend in the streets is that once-marginalised groups are uniting with the established opposition, under a combination of both social and political demands.
The axis of the protests, however, has switched from Moscow and St. Petersburg to outlying areas of the country. After an unprecedented 10,000-strong protest in Kaliningrad last month over a hike in transport tariffs, up to 2,000 people rallied in the far northern city of Arkhangelsk on Saturday, protesting an 18 per cent utilities hike. Over 500 protested in Samara against a similar hike, and smaller rallies were held in Siberia's Kemerovo region.
Unresolved social and economic issues are driving these rallies and spilling over into political protest, with some activists openly calling for Prime Minister Vladimir Putin's dismissal.Labour-related conflicts grew nearly threefold from 2008 to 2009, according to the Centre for Social and Labor Rights, with 272 disputes and strikes in 2009 - up from 93 in 2008.
"General protests are increasing, and this is logical," said Pyotr Bizyukov, an expert at the centre. "When labour disputes are not resolved, protests involving a wider range of civic issues increase. Labour problems can turn into civil problems, and you get [situations] like those we have seen in Kaliningrad and Arkhangelsk."
While tariff hikes alone provoke protests every year and are not necessarily an indicator, this year they became the last straw after other problems had accumulated during the economic crisis, said Carine Clement of the Institute for Collective Action, an organisation that brings together various left-leaning groups.
"There is a trend towards more involvement in protest organisation since the monetisation protests in 2005," Clement said, referring to massive rallies against state reforms of the benefit and welfare system.
The protests in 2009, taken as a whole, outnumber the protests from 2005, said Mikhail Delyagin, an economist at the Institute for Globalization Studies. "A total of 5 million people were involved in protests in 2009, while in 2005 there were about 3 million."
Social protests are increasing, he said, and they could have an impact on the 2012 elections. "A systemic [political] crisis in the country can't be ruled out."
Vyacheslav Nikonov, head of the Politika think tank, dismissed such talk. "Obviously, when a protest against something is organized, the authorities are blamed," he said of the linkage between social and political demands in Kaliningrad and elsewhere.
The real political battles are being waged over the regional Duma elections that will take place on March 14, Delyagin said. There, tensions are comparable to a "civil war", as various political figures struggle to maintain their standing and their business interests, he said.

Outrage at attack on Russian disabled kids

An article calling for the killing of disabled newborn babies by tabloid journalist Alexander Nikonov has provoked a storm of protest and split Russian society.
In an article for Speed Info titled "Finish them off before they suffer," Nikonov called for babies who are born with disabilities to be euthanised in order to spare the newborn and the parents the pain they would endure during the child's lifetime
In response, outraged parents of disabled children lodged a complaint with the Union of Russian Journalists and turned to President Dmitry Medvedev for support. Nikonov described disabled babies, including children born with Down's syndrome, as "defective blanks" and "idiots".
Despite human rights activists, Russian Orthodox Church officials and parents of disabled children comparing Nikonov's ideas to Nazi ideology, he has garnered a sizeable number of supporters. Twenty-five percent of respondents in an Ekho Moskvy survey agreed with Nikonov, and 46 percent of those polled by the St. Petersburg-based 100-TV channel believed that killing disabled babies is more sensible than trying to raise them.
"It is horrible that unqualified people like Nikonov try to present their views of families with disabled children as the absolute truth. He has never brought up a disabled child, so what can he know?" said Nadezhda Veselova, a spokeswoman for Perspektiva, an NGO that works to protect disabled people's rights.
"What qualifies as disability anyway?" wrote a blogger called VM. "Some people wear glasses, some use a wheelchair to get around. There are conditions that are invisible to the naked eye and yet life-threatening. If people have cancer, should they simply be eradicated? Those with developmental difficulties are no less valuable to those who love them."
A nurse who cares for disabled people disagreed: "It's an existence, not a life. One patient I remember was a woman in her late 20s who had a devastating chromosomal abnormality. She was about the size of a small child, lay in bed and was fed through a tube. No movement, no communication. Who would want to live like this? How much does it cost to keep someone like this alive for over 20 years?"
Vladislav Andryshin, the editor of the hpsy.ru psychology web site, said Russian society was extremely polarised on the issue.
"When a high standard of living ... becomes the main goal for many people, the healthy and active part of society tries to set itself apart from the others - the elderly, the homeless, the terminally ill," he said. "But we should remember that we become humans only when we care for children, the disabled and the ill."
In Russia, disabled people often live in an unfriendly or hostile environment.
Official figures put the number of disabled children in the country at 545,000, of which 24 per cent have various organ diseases and/or metabolic disorders; 23 percent live with limited motor functions; and 21 percent are mentally disabled.
But some experts claim the number of disabled children is at least twice the official figure; many parents do not register their children's disabilities, as the procedure is complicated and bureaucratic.
"Disabled children in Russia are trapped within four walls," said Svetlana Shtarkova, the mother of a disabled child. "There are no nurseries for them, no schools, no work and no entertainment."
"Families with disabled children face many problems," Shtarkova said. Doctors often refuse to treat such children because they are unqualified or do not have the necessary medicine; nurseries and schools refuse to admit disabled kids, and neighbours, acquaintances and strangers often shun and neglect them, according to Shtarkova.
"We need to change the public's attitude towards the disabled," Shtarkova said.

Putin’s electric shock for oligarchs

Not since he threw a pen at Oleg Deripaska has Vladimir Putin so publicly berated the country's richest billionaires.

The prime minister, who last year scolded the Rusal CEO over wage arrears and the year before promised to send a doctor to sort out another metals baron, Igor Zyuzin, on Wednesday named and shamed four of the country's top investors - Vladimir Potanin, Mikhail Prokhorov, Viktor Vekselberg and Leonid Lebedev - for "eating" government funds and not investing in the country's electricity sector.

"Economically, he's doing well," he said of Prokhorov, who topped the Forbes Russia rich list in 2009. "As they say, he cashed out. So now he is visiting different offices, he dropped by to see me the other day. I have very good relations with him. He is looking where to invest his funds. But he must fulfil his [power investment] obligations."
Putin was speaking at an electricity industry meeting after re-launching one of 10 hydro-electric units at the giant Sayano-Shushenskaya hydroelectric plant in Khakasia, Siberia, where an accident last August killed 75 workers and crippled electricity supplies in the region. The plant is scheduled to resume full operations only by 2014.
Putin threatened heavy fines and even prosecution for those oligarchs who failed to invest.
Analysts said there was an unwritten agreement by which businessmen would spend billions of dollars to buy up the constituent parts of Unified Energy System, the state's electricity monopoly, in exchange for market liberalisation and a framework for a viable capacity market.
The government, Putin said, had held up its end of the bargain by passing a decree on Wednesday stipulating the rules for the long-term capacity market. Businessmen who didn't honour their commitments should feel free to "go back to the old system of tariff regulation", Putin said.
"This was the exact opposite of the Mechel situation," said Derek Weaving, an electricity analyst at Renaissance Capital, referring to Putin's 2008 attack against Mechel, a leading metals and coal firm, which caused its stock to plunge 38 per cent in a day. "If Putin's remarks are to have any effect, it will be to push share prices higher. ... That [he] has so publicly and directly addressed [corporate governance] will ease these concerns."

Flanked by Igor Sechin, the influential deputy prime minister who oversees the energy sector, Putin first praised the 6.4 billion-rouble ($210 million) repair job carried out at the Sayano-Shushenskaya plant.
As for energy investment programmes in general, "this is not as positive as we wished it would be," Putin warned. "And I must tell you, ladies and gentlemen, some not very pleasant things."
Praising state and foreign companies, Putin proceeded to read off the names of domestic investors that had "not done what they promised to do, after getting state money."
Among the dozen companies Putin named were OGK-3, controlled by Vladimir Potanin's Norilsk Nickel, and TGK-4, controlled by Mikhail Prokhorov's Onexim.
After criticising Prokhorov, Putin turned to Potanin, Prokhorov's former long-time business partner.
"He took giant assets for free," Putin said of Potanin. "But nothing has been done as far as his investment programme is concerned. He bought [OGK-3] for 81.7 billion roubles. And he got 81.7 billion in state [handouts]. Essentially, he got a huge asset for free. Alright, so he got a huge asset for free. But there are obligations regarding investment problems. And nothing is being done."
In all, Putin said, 66 billion roubles ($2.2 billion) out of the 450 billion roubles raised by the electricity selloff had been used for "speculation".
Electricity stocks declined slightly soon after Putin's statements, with shares of Potanin-controlled OGK-3 slipping 1.3 per cent. Most power stocks closed on Wednesday broadly flat or slightly higher after a correction.

Even if it was harsh, electricity experts generally welcomed the speech as spurring investment in desperately-needed new generation capacity.The government's proposals on the long-term capacity market, spelling out how much generation companies will be paid for new capacity, give incentives to invest, said Weaving, of Renaissance, which is 49 per cent owned by Prokhorov.
"We've been waiting for a long time for this document, and its purpose is to give long-term security to investors that they will get paid at least a certain price for their capacity," Weaving said in an e-mail, adding that Putin's comments would help to funnel more private capital into the energy sector and clean up the rules of the game. "The message to the oligarchs is that, whatever else may be tolerated in Russia's immature business environment, the Putin government is determined that power sector reform will be played out according to the rules," Weaving said.
It was unlikely that power assets would be taken away from private investors, Weaving said. The only way that would happen is if proprietors "prove to be utterly inept in managing them," he said.
"The government has shown... it can use both the stick and the carrot to motivate investors," said Igor Goncharov, electricity analyst at UBS. No "significant direct monetary penalties or re-privatization" are likely, Goncharov said, adding that instead, the "non-behaving investors we be punished by getting less carrot."
VTB called the approval of the long-term capacity market "a positive move and an important milestone for [generating companies] as it might improve profitability."
Some experts said the government was partly to blame for the lack of investment, as it had dragged its feet on capacity market rules.
"Generators postponed investments because the government delayed adoption of the long-term capacity market rules," said Dmitry Bulgakov, an electricity analyst at Deutsche Bank in Moscow. "Gencos need visibility when they invest billions of dollars into new equipment."
Private investors would probably need to see more details of Putin's plan before making new commitments, Bulgakov added.

Medvedev Invites Ukraine President - Elect To Moscow

MOSCOW, Russia -- Russia invited Ukrainian president-elect Viktor Yanukovich on Monday to visit Moscow, aiming to consolidate improved relations with Kiev after years of acrimony under the outgoing president.

President Dmitry Medvedev made the invitation in a letter to Yanukovich released by the Kremlin press service.Ukraine's electoral commission confirmed on Sunday Yanukovich's win over his rival Yulia Tymoshenko in a runoff on February 7, paving the way for his inauguration. Tymoshenko says she intends challenging the result in court.If Yanukovich accepts the invitation, it could be his first foreign trip as president, reinforcing expectations that he will steer the former Soviet republic back towards Moscow's orbit.In a pointed reference to outgoing President Viktor Yushchenko, Medvedev's letter said the election showed that Ukrainians "desired to end the historically doomed attempts to sow discord between the people of our countries."Both Yanukovich and Tymoshenko said they wanted better relations with Moscow after five years of estrangement under Yushchenko, who was swept to power on a wave of anti-Russian sentiment and wanted Ukraine to join the European Union and NATO.Western leaders have also congratulated Yanukovich on his win and praised the poll for meeting democratic standards.During campaigning, Yanukovich stressed the "historical partnership" of Ukraine and Russia that goes beyond strategic relations. But he has also promised to tackle the country's economic problems and move it closer to the EU.

Viktor Yanukovych Says West Has Nothing To Fear From Ukraine

KIEV, Ukraine -- In an interview with The Daily Telegraph, his first to a Western newspaper since his election victory earlier this month, Viktor Yanukovych, laughed off the idea he was a Kremlin stooge.
He said the West would benefit from his new position and even promised to end the threats to Russian gas supplies flowing through his country to Europe."I have drawn deep conclusions from the mistakes I have made in the past," he said. "The truth is that I am on Ukraine's side. I want balanced and pragmatic relations with our strategic partners.".Mr Yanukovych, 59, a former Communist party member and twice convicted felon, narrowly defeated the country's prime minister, Yulia Tymoshenko, at the ballot box earlier this month.Mrs Tymoshenko again alleged yesterday that Mr Yanukovych had cheated his way to the presidency and vowed a legal challenge.But the international community has widely recognised Mr Yanukovych's victory as legitimate and Ukraine's central election commission has said it will not consider Mrs Tymoshenko's challenge. Mr Yanukovych is expected to force Mrs Tymoshenko's resignation from the premiership as early as this week as he moves to consolidate his grip on what is a huge strategically vital gas-transit country sandwiched between Russia and the West.His victory caps a remarkable and unlikely comeback from the political dead.Five years ago, mass protests triggered what came to be known as the Orange Revolution, a series of events that saw Mr Yanukovych stripped of a fraud-tainted election win and cast into the political wilderness.Bankrolled by some of the country's fabulously wealthy oligarchs and coached by a team of American spin doctors, Mr Yanukovych has gradually clawed his way back.Dressed in a dark suit and sporting a carefully coiffed, Soviet-style swept-back hairdo, he insists he does not hold a grudge against America even though he admits he is convinced that Washington helped engineer the 2004 Orange Revolution."Today (America's involvement) is not a secret. It was known and understood a long time ago. But we have already turned a new page and are looking to the future."Former US President George Bush's policy of spreading US-style democracy was dead and buried."Attempts to foist political views on any people cause people's lives to get worse. It is a policy that does not lead to trust or success," he said.Europe could sleep safely in the knowledge that Ukraine would not get embroiled in any spats with Russia that have caused serious gas shortages in Europe in recent years, he added."When I was prime minister on two different occasions we never had such problems," he said. "People did not even know it was possible to have such problems in Europe. The conflicts were unjustified and relations with Russia over-politicised. Ukraine can play a stabilising role in many questions between Europe and Russia."While craving warmer relations with the West, Mr Yanukovych makes no secret of the fact that his priority is to rebuild battered relations with Russia.He says he wants to help Russia get into the World Trade Organisation and has said he will consider allowing Russia's Black Sea Fleet to remain based in Ukraine after its lease runs out in 2017. He also wants the Russian language to be given equal or near equal status with Ukrainian, the country's sole state language for now."We need to improve our ties with brotherly countries such as Russia," he says. He will have an early opportunity to show where his loyalties lie when he makes his first foreign trip as president. Like Ukraine itself, he will have to make a symbolic yet fateful choice: Russia or Europe.

Ukraine's Yanukovych Pronounced Official Winner

KIEV, Ukraine -- Ukraine's election commission Sunday proclaimed pro-Russian Victor Yanukovych the official winner of the presidential poll, even as his rival Yulia Tymoshenko vowed to contest the results in court.
The central election commission declares Victor Yanukovych elected as the president of Ukraine," chairman Volodymyr Shapoval announced to applause in the commission's meeting hall.The final results do not differ from preliminary figures announced on Wednesday.Yanukovych had 48.95 percent of the vote, compared to Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko's 45.47 percent, and 4.36 percent of ballots were cast "against all" in a sign of disillusionment five years after the Orange Revolution.According to Ukrainian law the inauguration of a new president must be held within 30 days of the official announcement of results."We will name the date of inauguration not later than tomorrow in the evening," a close ally of Yanukovych, lawmaker Borys Kolesnikov, said on television on Sunday.Meanwhile Tymoshenko insists she has not been defeated and hopes to contest the final results in the supreme administrative court."We are certainly going to contest. The statement of claim will be given. I think on Monday or on Tuesday," Volodymyr Pylypenko, Tymoshenko's representative at the election commission, was quoted as saying by the Interfax news agency.Tymoshenko's lawyers have already prepared claims for lower administrative and appeal courts."In particular there are 43 cases in the Kiev court of appeals about the inaction of the central election commission in considering some complaints", Pylypenko added.

Yanukovych Named Official Winner Of Ukraine Vote

KIEV, Ukraine -- Ukraine's Central Election Commission named Viktor Yanukovych the official winner of the presidential elections Sunday, thwarting Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko's hopes of overturning the vote.
Tymoshenko's last recourse is now with the courts. The election commission also dismissed all of her complaints of fraud and misconduct during the Feb. 7 ballot.The commission said Yanukovych garnered nearly 888,000 more votes than Tymoshenko, defeating her by 3.5 percentage points."The commission names Yanukovych the winner," Chairman Volodymyr Shapoval said to applause from the officials gathered in the chamber. "This applause is for the newly elected president."After six days of silence on the election, Tymoshenko said in a televised appeal Saturday that the vote had been rigged and she would challenge the results in court.The commission hurried to tally the final results, announcing them three days ahead of the Feb. 17 deadline even as complaints of fraud poured in from Tymoshenko's staff.One of Tymoshenko's representatives on the election body, Zhanna Usenko-Chorna, refused to read out the results from her districts, forcing a commission secretary to read them out in her place.Tymoshenko asked Ukrainians to support her legal battle to overturn the elections,but urged them not to take to the streets in protest as demonstrations would destabilize the country.Tymoshenko helped lead the 2004 mass street protests against Yanukovych's election victory that year. Dubbed the Orange Revolution, those demonstrations paved the way for a court-ordered rerun, which was won by Tymoshenko's ally, Viktor Yushchenko.But the vicious antagonism which quickly erupted between Yushchenko and Tymoshenko paralyzed the government, worsening Ukraine's economic woes and helping Yanukovych mount a comeback.

Europe, United States Should Welcome Ukraine To West

MUNICH, Germany -- At the Munich Security Conference recently, Ukrainian foreign minister Petro Poroshenko had a clear message: Ukraine is a part of Europe. He stressed that Ukraine is “a big European country” and insisted that plans to move forward on NATO membership “will be successfully implemented.”
In his opening remarks during a panel discussion about the future of European security, Poroshenko mentioned Europe/European thirteen times, the EU ten times, NATO nine times and Euro-Atlantic four times. There were only five mentions of Russia.Ukrainians clearly see their future in Europe. As Newsweek noted, “more than 60 percent of Ukrainians hope one day to join Europe and no longer look to Russia for support and protection.”With Victor Yanukovych in power, pro-European enthusiasm may be toned down slightly, but it will remain alive. While president-elect Yanukovych has been cozy with Moscow in the past, he made pro-European overtures during his campaign because Europe – not Russia – resonates with Ukrainian voters.Ukraine has chosen the West over Russia, and it’s clear why. To their west, Ukrainians see that once-Eastern bloc Poland is now fully integrated into the European Union and boasts a booming economy. Then to the east, there is Russia, a sickly state with a weak economy and a bleak future.Meanwhile the West has yet to make its choice about Ukraine. There is a sense that many Europeans secretly breathed a sigh of relief at Yanukovych’s victory, hoping that Ukraine under his leadership would stop pestering them about EU membership.Europe has never managed to send a clear signal in response to Ukraine’s hopes of joining the European community. Instead, Brussels has left Ukraine drifting. And without the carrot of EU membership, the heroes of the Orange Revolution had little incentive to battle corruption and tackle reforms.Disappointed voters turned on their former hero, President Victor Yushchenko, and now they’ve rejected Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko, too.But now is not the time for the U.S. and Europe to turn their backs on Ukraine. Just the opposite. This election was a wake-up call. The West needs to get its act together. Ukraine is trying its best to develop Western values, but in order to do so it needs steadfast Western partners.“The way forward is to stand behind our principles. The EU is a strong force of change and NATO is also,” said William Pomeranz, deputy director of the Wilson Center’s Kennan Institute in Washington.He’s right. The West could offer powerful incentives to Ukraine that would encourage reform. For example, the EU should change visa restrictions that keep Ukrainians locked up in their country.However, it’s clear Europe won’t handle Ukraine on its own. The U.S. has to get more involved. Shortsighted Europe has continued to snub Kiev, like when Germany didn’t invite Ukraine to the celebrations marking the 20th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall.Of course, one of the big factors driving Europe’s ambivalence on Ukraine is Russia’s gas. Countries like Germany have been happy to sell Ukraine down the river – as Angela Merkel and Nicolas Sarkozy did in Bucharest when they torpedoed U.S. President George W. Bush’s plans to expand NATO – to avoid upsetting the Russians.In this regard, Yanukovych as president could prove helpful because Moscow isn’t scared of him. The Kremlin might not freak out at the thought of Yanukovych working with Western leaders.So the U.S. and Europe should move forward and prove they are serious about Ukraine by drawing up a clear road map for Ukrainian membership in the EU as well as NATO.And the West should stop viewing Ukraine as a charity case. The country has tremendous potential. Ukraine could be the next Poland if the U.S. and Europe gave it adequate support and attention.During a recent trip to Lviv, one could be struck by the city’s raw energy, and reassured that the take-charge attitude that fueled the 2004 democratic Orange Revolution has not been lost.Oleksandr Lytvynov, a university student, proudly said that in Ukraine and across Central Europe, “many young people want to change their lives, change their place in the world.” He hopes to earn a masters degree in Western Europe and then return to Ukraine to help his country.Oleh Berezyuk, the young and energetic director of the Lviv mayor’s office, said Ukraine is experiencing a “great generational shift.” He said that young Ukrainians “have drive” and are “full of energy, potential and an urge to live a better life.”The spirit of the Orange Revolution is alive and well. A new generation of Ukrainians is prepared to take up the call, and they’re knocking on the West’s door. The West should open it and welcome them in.

Black Sea Fleet ships taking part in tactical maneuvers

Black Sea Fleet ships taking part in tactical maneuvers

Ukraine may become world's sixth biggest arms trader

The output of Ukrainian defense plants grew by 58% in 2009, which would unable Ukraine to rank as the world's sixth largest arms trader, the Ukrainian Industrial Policy Ministry's Defense Sector Agency said.

The largest growth was reported by aircraft builders (77%), shipbuilders (71%) and producers of armaments and military hardware (16%).

Ukraine signed a record number of large contracts last year, representatives of the Army, Conversion and Disarmament Studies Center said in an interview published by the Saturday issue of the Tyzhnia (Mirror Weekly) newspaper.

"The portfolio of orders of Ukrspetsexport and subsidiaries ensures a substantial growth of annual arms exports for the next two or three years. There are contracts to modernize Antonov An-32 military cargo planes for India [with the cost exceeding $400 million], to deliver a batch of Zubr small air-cushion landing ships to China [$315 million], to supply six Antonov An-32 [about $100 million) and 420 BTR-4 armored personnel carriers to Iraq, and to bring a large number of armored personnel carriers to Thailand," the experts said.

"There are large deliveries of Zorya Mashproyekt gas-turbines to the Indian Navy [for Russian-made frigates and national destroyers of Projects R15A and R15B supplied earlier] and the delivery of 100 AI-20 5 engines to the Indian Air Force [about $110 million]," the experts said.

The contracts upgraded the Ukrainian position. It may become the world's sixth biggest arms seller after the United States, Russia, France, Germany and Israel.

It’s the season of falling ice, a perilous time in Kyiv

Critics blame slow municipal government for not doing more to clear ice blocks from building rooftops?

The snowfalls have been more than brief flurries this winter. And the layers of packed snow and ice have brought their own hardship: One person has been killed and thousands have been injured on Kyiv’s slippery streets.

Until the spring thaw, Kyivans are warned to walk as far from buildings as they can and to look up so as to get out of the way of falling icicles and ice blocks.

Kyiv Mayor Leonid Chernovetsky, long thought to be on vacation somewhere warm, even snapped into action. He asked citizens to alert him about dangerous ice-block formations on the city’s roofs and promised to remove them – pronto. If only the same could happen with the city’s uncollected garbage.

“This is a very serious question, so I’m taking it under my personal control. I appeal to all Kyivans not to be indifferent and to call me personally 1551 and report icicles,” he said on Feb 19. The mayor asked companies and state authorities that manage properties to pick up ice picks and clear off snow-clad roofs.

For some people, however, this wake-up call came too late. Pensioner Galyna Zinyuk, 78, was one of them. She went out for a walk with her husband on Feb 21 to the Park of Glory in the Pechersk district and was hit by a brick of ice. It dropped from the roof of the National State Transport University and landed right on Zinyuk’s head. According to witness reports, she died on the spot.

By law, owners of commercial and state properties are responsible for getting rid of the snow. When Zinyuk died, the prosecutors opened a criminal case against the transport university, which failed to remove icicles on time.

As if waking from a long winter sleep, city authorities called a few emergency meetings to respond to the icy crisis. “All the dangerous places near buildings should be sealed off with warning tapes, and I particularly request that Kyiv residents walk around such zones,” Chernovetsky said.

Municipal workers followed the orders, cordoning off many pavements with red-and-white tape. Cars parked along curbs took a good share of the remaining walking space, leaving people the choice of venturing under roofs or dodging speeding traffic.

“We receive 30 to 35 people daily,” said Yevhen Kasyan, a doctor in the Shevchenko accident clinic. It’s twice more than last year, he said, and "there are more fractures than before.”

The mayor’s office reported 10 cases of people hurt by icicles within the last few days. The total number of people who suffered from unusually severe weather conditions this winter is yet to be announced. The casualty list, however, may hit thousands.

Yevheniya Alexandrova, 29, suffered a concussion when she slipped while walking on the side street. “In the city center, they [communal workers] at least clean something. In residential districts, roads have not just turned into skating rinks, they are like icebergs,” Alexandrova said. “My leg was injured, but I didn’t realize that my head was hurt too. I called the local clinic but no one was there on the weekend. In the accident ward, they [doctors] said they did not have an X-ray unit, so I had to wait until Monday to find out [my diagnosis].”

Alexandrova did not sue the communal authorities responsible for clearing pavements. “To invite a plumber, you have to wait until he sobers up. So when it comes to a complaint as big as mine, it’s useless to fight,” she said.

City authorities in January admitted they did not cope with snow well. Chernovetsky even offered people not to pay for street-cleaning services if their yards were overwhelmed with snow. Many Kyiv residents received their monthly utility bills with deductions for snow trouble as small as Hr 2.

“If it weren’t so sad, it would be funny,” said Alexandrova, who spent almost two weeks in bed.

It’s one thing to flap and flounder as the snow piles higher, and it is another to make timely decisions.

Building climber Yury Nikolayev from Actual Service cleaning business said that the city woke up too late to the problem. “Only when overwhelmed by snow, they started acting. Before that, they waited indifferently. Just yesterday, I had one company ring me up at 5 a.m. because ice broke through their window, which could have been removed beforehand.”

He said there are still many icicles in the city and, with the weather getting warmer, they would be showering down in the blink of an eye. “If a five-kilo ice block falls from the fourth floor, it hits the ground with the power of more than 75 kilos,” said Nikolayev.

Anxious citizens say it is time for business owners and city officials to do their math and remove the dangerous ice clusters before it is too late.

Yanukovych Seeks New, EU-Friendly Image With Brussels Trip

KIEV, Ukraine -- Ukraine's new president, Viktor Yanukovych, will make his first foreign trip Monday, visiting Brussels in a bid to reshape his image as a Kremlin stooge and cast himself as a champion of EU integration.
Yanukovych, who was inaugurated Thursday, will meet European Union president Herman Van Rompuy as well as the European Commission chief Jose Manuel Barroso and EU foreign affairs chief Catherine Ashton.

By making his first foreign trip to Brussels rather than to Moscow, where he is due March 5, Yanukovych is aiming to soften his pro-Russian image and reassure Europeans of his intentions, analysts said.

"He needs to demonstrate that he is not a Russian stooge," said Amanda Paul, an analyst at the European Policy Centre in Brussels.

Russia had been hoping for warmer relations with Ukraine under a Yanukovych presidency after years of confrontation with the country's last president, the fervently pro-Western Viktor Yushchenko.

Yanukovych's trip could even "provoke a jealous reaction in Moscow," said Dmitriy Vydrin, an independent political analyst in Kiev.

Russia has suggested Ukraine could join a customs union it is creating along with Belarus and Kazakhstan, a prospect that a Ukrainian lawmaker close to Yanukovych, Olexander Yefremov, has said he "did not rule out."

On Friday, Russian foreign ministry spokesman Andrei Nesterenko said he saw "no legal obstacle to Ukraine joining the customs union between Russia, Belarus and Kazakhstan."

Any move by Kiev to join the customs union would irritate the EU, which is holding talks with Ukraine on creating a free-trade zone and is keen to keep the country from falling into Russia's sphere of influence.

Brussels will need to demonstrate its support for Ukraine, a former Soviet republic of 46 million people strategically located between Russia and the EU, after years of failed bids for closer EU-Ukraine integration.

"The EU should use this opportunity to strengthen relations with Ukraine, pushing for reforms, but offering assistance," said Paul. "The EU should send a strong message that it sees (Yanukovych) as being pro-European."

Yanukovych's trip is hotly anticipated, a Ukrainian diplomatic source said, telling AFP that "no other trip has been organised with so much interest" from the European side.

Brussels will seek warm ties with Kiev, since it is alarmed by the prospect of Ukraine joining the Russian customs union -- which would be "a revival of the Soviet Union, a complete change of Europe's geopolitical map," the source said.

At the same time Brussels is hoping Yanukovych will implement badly needed economic reforms that have been blocked by the recent years of political instability in Ukraine, the diplomatic source said.

"They are tired of the mess and hope that under Yanukovych the state will start functioning better and that the promises will be kept from now on."

Another hot topic will be supplies of Russian natural gas that transit via Ukraine. The EU will want reassurances that there will be no repetition of the Russia-Ukraine gas disputes of recent years, including the one in January 2009 that disrupted supplies to over a dozen European countries.

Yanukovych will want to discuss the creation of a consortium between Russian energy giant Gazprom and European countries to upgrade Ukraine's pipelines, said Nico Lange of the Konrad Adenauer Foundation in Kiev.

Under Yushchenko, the participation of Russia in such a consortium would have been unthinkable.

Russia Welcomes Chance Of Ukraine Joining Customs Union

MOSCOW, Russia -- There are no real legal obstacles to prevent Ukraine from joining the Customs Union of Russia, Belarus and Kazakhstan, a Russian Foreign Ministry spokesman said on Friday.

"We think that this issue should be considered very closely," Andrei Nesterenko said.

"The Russian side doesn't see any legal obstacles to Ukraine's entry into the Customs Union, which began operating on January 1."

"Of course, this will need the consent of the EurAsEC member-states at the first stage and of the Customs Union member-states at the second stage," he added.

The statement comes after reports that new Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych is willing to start talks on the country's entry into the Customs Union.

The possibility of joining the group drew criticism from Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko, Yanukovych's defeated opponent in the February 7 presidential runoff, who has not recognized the president's victory in the election.

Yanukovych has said his administration would not continue with former President Viktor Yushchenko's bid to take Ukraine into NATO, and would prioritize long-established relations with Russia and other CIS countries.

Many experts believe Ukraine's accession to the Customs Union would trigger a massive slump in exports, aggravating the country's difficult economic situation still further.

Furthermore, Ukraine's bid is likely to complicate Moscow's position at talks on energy issues inside the union, as Russia and Belarus entered a bitter dispute at the start of the year over duty-free oil supplies to Belarus that threatened crude deliveries to Europe.

Russia, Kazakhstan and Belarus signed in late November 2009 an agreement to create a customs union, paving the way for a single economic space. The agreement came into force on January 1, when the three countries introduced common foreign trade tariffs.

Ukraine's accession to the union could be further complicated by its membership of the World Trade Organization.

In June 2009, Russia, Kazakhstan and Belarus notified the WTO of their intention to join the world trade club as a customs union, but four months later the three former Soviet republics announced they would resume talks on accession separately, but working from synchronized positions.

New Ukraine Leader Set For EU Parliament Visit

KIEV, Ukraine -- Viktor Yanukovych, the opposition leader who won Ukraine's recent election, will visit the EU parliament next week, it has been revealed.
Yanukovych, who was inaugurated as the country's new president on Thursday, will hold meetings with parliament's president Jerzy Buzek and appear at a news conference on Monday.

He accepted an invitation from Buzek who was in Kiev for his inauguration.

The fact that the pro-Russian leader has chosen Brussels, rather than Moscow for his first overseas visit will be seen as symbolically important.

A parliament source said, "It's a feather in the cap for parliament and the EU."

His electoral opponent, prime minister Yulia Tymoshenko, says Yanukovych won through fraud and refuses to recognise his victory.

Both Tymoshenko and the outgoing president, Viktor Yushchenko, did not attend the ceremony.

International observers have said the February poll was conducted fairly.

Yanukovych beat Tymoshenko in the run-off by 3.5 per cent. He won the support of only about a third of Ukraine's 37 million eligible voters.

He is the first Ukrainian president to have been backed by fewer than 50 per cent of those who voted.

Meanwhile, a resolution adopted by parliament on Thursday calls for closer ties with Ukraine.

The EPP motion said the EU "must respond with clear signals welcoming" Ukraine's EU aspirations.

Inese Vaidere, the MEP who observed the election, said, "It is important the president manages to bring together the country's leading political forces."

New Ukraine President Pledges Neutrality

KIEV, Ukraine -- Viktor Yanukovych was sworn in as Ukraine's new president Thursday, vowing to follow a path of neutrality in a switch from the strongly pro-Western stance of the defeated Orange Revolution leaders.
Yanukovych took his oath in a ceremony in parliament attended by a host of international dignitaries but conspicuously boycotted by his election rival, Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko, and her supporters.

"I, Viktor Yanukovych, elected president of Ukraine by the will of the people, swear the oath of loyalty to Ukraine," he said, placing his right hand on a 16th-century Ukrainianlanguage gospel and a copy of the constitution.

"I vow to defend through my actions the sovereignty and independence of Ukraine and the rights and freedoms of its citizens," he said.

Yanukovych is expected to return his country of 46 million bridging Russia and the European Union to a more Moscow-friendly course, a reversal of the policies of his predecessor Viktor Yushchenko.

In an immediate statement of his foreign policy priorities, Yanukovych indicated he would not seek membership in NATO -- a major goal of the Yushchenko presidency -- or Russian-led military alliances.

"The challenges that the international community face mean we have to join together in a larger format. We are ready to participate in this process as a European, non-aligned state," he said.

He described Ukraine as a "bridge between East and West" and said it would have relations as equal partners with the European Union, Russia and the United States.

In a bid to prove he does not want to abandon EU integration, Yanukovych has chosen the European Union's headquarters in Brussels for his first foreign trip on Monday.

One of his leading aides, Anna German, said his visit to Russia would take place on March 5.

International officials attending the inauguration included EU foreign affairs chief Catherine Ashton, U.S. national security adviser James Jones and speaker of the Russian parliament Boris Gryzlov.

But rows of empty benches in the parliament, the Verkhovna Rada, signalled the absence of Tymoshenko and her party and showed that Ukraine remains far from much-needed political stability.

Yanukovych has called on Tymoshenko to resign gracefully after her defeat by a margin of some 3.5 per cent in the Feb. 7 presidential elections, but the charismatic prime minister has so far refused to budge, claiming to have sufficient support in parliament.

She has refused to recognize Yanukovych as president and alleged the elections were marred by widespread fraud, even though they were praised by international observers.

Of all Ukraine's past presidents, only the 1994-2005 ruler Leonid Kuchma was present.

Ukraine’s ‘Dysfunctional Democracy’ May Linger For Half A Year

KIEV, Ukraine -- Newly inaugurated Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych may be forced to share power with rival Yulia Tymoshenko for as long as six months as he searches for the votes to oust her as premier or calls new parliamentary elections.
The president’s lack of a ruling majority in the 450-seat parliament threatens to deprive the former Soviet republic of the stability needed to combat Europe’s deepest recession and revive investor confidence.

Ukraine, whose debt is the third-most expensive to insure in the world, can’t gain access to an international bailout and pay Russia for gas to Europe without a government capable of winning approval for this year’s budget.

“There is going to be a lot of uncertainty for some time,” said Nick Day, London-based chief executive officer of the security and intelligence research group Diligence Inc. “Clearly Yanukovych has not got an overwhelming majority and needs to get a lot of people on his side in order to push through any meaningful changes within the economy. People will swap sides and it will become a dysfunctional democracy.”

A prolonged battle may deepen Ukraine’s economic decay and delay the resumption of a $16.4 billion emergency loan from the International Monetary Fund that has been frozen since November.

The IMF is demanding spending cuts that narrow the budget deficit by about a third from its 2009 level of about 13 percent of output, a reduction of energy subsidies and a consolidated banking industry. Lawmakers have yet to approve a 2010 budget.

Won’t Leave Voluntarily

Tymoshenko has said she won’t leave her post voluntarily, setting Yanukovych, who took office yesterday, the challenge of overturning her majority in the parliament. She is supported by a coalition of 244 lawmakers that includes her party, former President Viktor Yushchenko’s group and parliamentary speaker Volodymyr Lytvyn’s supporters.

Yanukovych’s Party of Regions has 171 seats, and he needs to secure 27 seats from the Communists and lure 20 followers from Lytvyn’s party and at least eight from the Tymoshenko or Yushchenko ranks to oust her.

If he fails, early parliamentary elections can’t be held until autumn, according to Yuriy Yakymenko, head of legal and political studies at the Kiev-based Razumkov Center. “The situation is very difficult and hard to predict,” he said.

Olexiy Haran, a professor of comparative politics at the Kiev-Mohyla Academy, said elections may be possible in June “though the Party of Regions will try to avoid it” because of concern about potential election fatigue among the electorate and because of possible delays to the budget passage that would stall the disbursement of the next IMF loan installment.

It will take the new president “some time” to form a coalition, said Nigel Rendell, senior emerging-market economist at RBC Capital Markets in London, by telephone.

Difficult Consensus

“There’s a lot of disagreement between the politicians, the economy is in a recession and the IMF loan is still up in the air,” he said. “To get a consensus that can govern is going to be quite difficult.”

And the stalemate could persist, leaving the IMF without a functioning government to negotiate with over the loan resumption, Rendell said.

“It would be a very bad-case scenario,” he said. “But it’s possible.”

Day said Tymosheno’s “strong and dedicated following” will force Yanukovych to seek compromises on legislation that is important to him.

“Everything is going to be a great struggle overshadowed by the horse-trading and political infighting,” said Day.

Yanukovych may be hampered in such maneuvering by his campaign promises to increase wages and social payments, said Yakymenko.

Limited Finances

“They understand already that the state finances do not make it possible,” Yakymenko said. “It is going to work against Yanukovych.”

Yanukovych defeated Tymoshenko in a Feb. 7 presidential election that was certified as legitimate by international observers. Tymoshenko has refused to concede defeat and tried to challenge the outcome in the courts.

Investors have lost patience. The hryvnia has lost 41 percent against the dollar since September 2008 and was the world’s second worst performer after the Venezuelan bolivar.

The yield on Ukraine’s 2016 Eurobond fell 18 basis points to 10.07 percent. The credit default swap spread on the country’s five-year debt narrowed to 936 basis points on Feb. 24 from 944 the previous day, Bloomberg data show. A narrower spread signals improved investor perceptions of credit risk.

“A country like Ukraine needs to put so many things right,” said Day. “They need to get some real fiscal discipline into their country to attract foreign investment and to do that they need to push through strong reform.”

Russian capital Moscow covered by record 63cm snowfall

Thousands of snow-clearing machines have been working to dig the Russian capital Moscow out of a record-breaking fall of 63cm (nearly 25 inches).

After a weekend of heavy snow showers, the regional weather centre announced that the previous record of 62cm, set in 1966, had been broken.

Snow ploughs were due to make three clean sweeps of the city on Monday.

Drivers were asked to leave their cars at home but rail services are said to have been unaffected by the weather.

A Moscow railway spokesman said that 4,471km (2,778m) of track had been cleared of snow on Sunday.

In all, about 15,000 snow-clearing machines were deployed in the city of about 10.5 million people, backed by 8,500 dump trucks and about 5,500 street-sweeping personnel.

Monday's three scheduled sweeps were due to take place at 1000 (0700 GMT), 1300 and 1700.

A police source told Interfax news agency that Muscovites had largely heeded calls to avoid driving and there had been no significant increase in traffic accidents.

Weather forecasters were predicting that the snow would die out overnight, with Tuesday set to be a clear day.

Chernovetsky сalls on citizens to inform city call centre about icicles on building roofs that threaten their health

Kyiv Mayor Leonid Chernovetsky is calling on citizens to inform the city's call centre about icicles on the roofs of buildings if they pose a threat to their health.

Ukrainian News learned this from the press service of the Kyiv municipal administration.

"This a very serious question, so I'm taking it under my personal control. I appeal to all Kyivans not to be indifferent and call me personally 15-51 and notify about revealed icicles. I promise you immediate response," the press service quotes the mayor as saying.

He also instructed district state administrations to step up work on removing icicles and fence areas dangerous for pedestrians around with warning tape.

The press service of the Kyiv municipal administration told Ukrainian News that falling icicles have injured four people in Kyiv in the past three days.

An emergency meeting of the operational headquarters on emergency situations has been convened to discuss the problem of icicles.

During the meeting, the Kyiv municipal administration's first deputy head Anatoliy Holubchenko instructed the municipal administration's main department of housing to hire professional steeplejacks and provide them with the equipment necessary to remove icicles from the roofs of buildings.

"I am calling on the heads of all districts to urgently telephone and write the managements of the buildings that are not owned by the municipal authorities... All the entities that have buildings on their books should be informed of the need to remove icicles from roofs as well as about the responsibility for improper maintenance of the buildings under their control. It is necessary to work with the residents of the apartments where access to balconies are difficult. In addition, all the dangerous places near buildings should be sealed off with warning tapes, and I particularly request that Kyiv residents walk around such zones," Holubchenko said.

In case of problems, Kyiv residents can call the Kyiv Rescue Service by the telephone number 430-37-13 or the Kyiv municipal administration's main department of emergency situations by the telephone number 430-50-10.

In addition, the Kyiv municipal administration's call center can be reached 24 hours a day via the telephone number 15-51.

As Ukrainian News earlier reported, Chernovetsky believes that negligent carrying of duties by chairpersons of district state administrations led to an icicle falling on a woman in the Pecherskyi district on February 17 and injuring her.

Chernovetsky called on the Kyiv prosecutors' office for holding liable those guilty of injury of the citizen

Supreme Administrative Court accepts Tymoshenko's decision to withdraw her appeal against results of presidential elections

The Supreme Administrative Court has accepted Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko's decision to withdraw her appeal against the results of the Ukrainian presidential elections.

Presiding judge Oleksandr Nechytailo announced the court's decision to accept the withdrawal request.

"The legislation makes no provision for rejection of such a petition because it is definitely the right of the person that filed the lawsuit with the court. Based on the legal position of the plaintiff, the court is deprived of the opportunity to continue the consideration of the case and it is obliged to stop considering the lawsuit," Nechytailo said, reading the court's decision.

The court rejected Tymoshenko's claim that the rigging of the presidential elections was proven during the consideration of the appeal.

The court reversed its ruling that suspended the Central Electoral Commission's decision to establish the results of the second round of the presidential elections, pending consideration of Tymoshenko's appeal.

The court's decision is final and not subject to appeal.

As Ukrainian News earlier reported, Tymoshenko earlier told the court that she was withdrawing her appeal against the results of the presidential elections and left the court building.

Tymoshenko said that the court was biased and expressed the view that the court refused to allow live broadcast of its proceedings because it did not want Ukrainians to see how it refused to admit significant evidence of election rigging.

Earlier, the Supreme Administrative Court agreed to summon five members of the Central Electoral Commission as witnesses in the appeal case but rejected 13 witnesses.

The court also rejected Tymoshenko's petition to accept as evidence data from the state register of voters regarding duplication of the names of voters on the register and inclusion of the names of dead people on the register.

Tymoshenko filed the appeal with the Supreme Administrative Court on February 16 and asked the court to order a repeat of the second round of the presidential elections.

Ukraine's Tymoshenko Gathers Strength For New Political Assault

KIEV, Ukraine -- Over the past few weeks Yulia Tymoshenko has suffered a series of humiliting defeats in front of the Ukrainian people, but analysts say she will soon be seeking political revenge.
The prime minister's defeat in the February 7 presidential election against sworn enemy Viktor Yanukovych came as a numbing shock to the Orange Revolution princess who had expected Ukraine's top job to become the pinnacle of her high-flying career.

Instead, she has suffered a series of wounding blows and sneers from foes.

Tymoshenko threatened mass street protests if Yanukovych rigged the polls. She had to backtrack on that after it became clear noone was in the mood for a second Orange Revolution.

After the polls she disappeared from public view. There was three days of silence before she declared she would never recognize Yanukovych's win.

Then she vowed to challenge his victory but in a dramatic backdown asked the country's top court to drop her appeal.

"Her task was simple -- to make the legal process part of a new political legend about the stolen elections," said Andriy Yermolayev, director of the Sofia social research centre.

For now, analysts said, she will have to regroup and be patient. In a deeply divided, impoverished country she has time on her side.

Yanukovych inherits a nation badly hit by the economic crisis and it will not take long before people become disillusioned by the lack of economic progress in Ukraine torn by rivalries and dependent on foreign aid, including from Russia and the IMF, analysts said.

"Tymoshenko is a very emotional woman who has been renowned for her powerful political tactics only," said Viktor Nebozhenko, the head of the Ukrainian Barometer polling agency.

"Today however she has finally got some sort of strategy. She is thinking about the future for the first time."

"In about six months Tymoshenko's fight for justice will bring her political dividends."

After Tymoshenko ignored Yanukovych's calls to volantarily resign from the post of prime minister, his Regions Party launched an official motion in parlaiment to throw out her government.

To do that, Yanukovych must secure a majority in the 450-seat parliament, getting political rivals to join his coalition. The new president will have to call early elections if he fails to forge a majority. None of it will be easy.

A top politician from Tymoshenko's BYuT party, Andriy Kozhemyakin, said her camp will go into opposition if the government is dismissed.

Analysts say the charismatic 49-year old prime minister, who enjoys solid support in the country's west and centre, can make life difficult for Yanukovych, whose win by a margin of just over 3.5 percent was unconvincing to many.

Many observers fear Ukraine could become stuck in a paralysing new political confrontation, with Tymoshenko now taking out her wrath on Yanukovych instead of Viktor Yushchenko, the outgoing president and her one-time ally.

"Tymoshenko will do everything to keep the old coalition in place," Yermolayev said.

"In Ukraine real power rests with the coalition and the government because they control budget, economic policies, the corporate sector and even most of the security forces."

Both rivals have good ties with Russia to which the two are expected to take their disputes.

Yanukovych is believed to enjoy President Dmitry Medvedev's backing and is to meet him in Moscow in early March. Prime Minister Vladimir Putin is said to favour Tymoshenko, whose camp has already said it will boycott Yanukovych's swearing-in set for February 25.

Ukraine's Tymoshenko Set To Fight On

KIEV, Ukraine -- Ukrainian Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko withdrew her appeal case against the elections results from the Supreme Administrative court and the court has closed the case. But she has not conceded.
She said once again that Viktor Yanukovich will never be considered Ukraine's legitimately elected president.

This is in stark contrast to her fellow Orange Revolutionary - incumbent Ukrainian President Viktor Yushchenko.

On Saturday he finally congratulated his long-time rival, Mr Yanukovich, on a legitimate victory.

Sergei Mishchenko, an MP from Mrs Tymoshenko's party, has said their party is planning to boycott the inauguration ceremony scheduled for 25 February.

He also added Mrs Tymoshenko is not giving in, she will not recognise the elections results and she will continue to work as prime minister.

Mr Yanukovich has asked Mrs Tymoshenko to step down from her post on several occasions. And she has said that she will not.

As president, Mr Yanukovich does not have the right to fire or to appoint a prime minister - that is up to Ukraine's parliament.

At the moment Mrs Tymoshenko's party is still part of the parliamentary coalition, but negotiations are under way to form a new coalition based on Mr Yanukovich's Regions Party.

One of the leaders of the Regions Party, Nikolai Azarov, speaking to Ukrainian TV channel Inter, said it was fantastic to even consider the possibility of Mrs Tymoshenko remaining in her post for much longer.

But no-one here in Ukraine thinks it will be an easy task to remove her.

Country in limbo

Once MPs form a new coalition they are likely to vote Mrs Tymoshenko's government out, but until a new government is formed - and that can take weeks in the current political situation - Mrs Tymoshenko will remain as acting prime minister under President Yanukovich.

Analysts agree that little will be achieved in those weeks, and the country will remain in limbo.

Of course, these coalition talks depend on many factors, on internal politics and favours.

If they fail, Ukrainians will have to vote once again - in early parliamentary elections.

Either way, despite peoples' hopes, the economic situation is not likely to improve drastically.

Last year the country's economy shrank by 15%.

Mr Yanukovich has promised to improve the lives of those most disadvantaged - state workers and pensioners.

During his election campaigning he also promised to create more jobs.

But with a government run by his rival he will experience difficulties in fulfilling any of his promises.

Mrs Tymoshenko will also not be able to push any of her priorities.

The country is still living according to last year's budget. It is even unclear where the money for the inauguration is to come from.

Ukraine is also waiting for the much needed last tranche of the $16.4bn (£10.6bn) bailout programme from the International Monetary Fund.

This payment was suspended last year - until after the presidential elections with a specific demand from the IMF for political stability and a democratic transfer of power.

However, Mr Yanukovich will have to consider what his rival stands for. Half the country did, after all, vote for Mrs Tymoshenko, and he won by a small margin.

He promised to unite the country - the Russian-speaking east and south that backed him overwhelmingly, and the Western Ukrainian-speaking half that backed Mrs Tymoshenko.

But no-one is really certain how he will achieve that.

Just after the elections Mr Yanukovich said he was still undecided whether to visit Russia or an EU country first, but now the Kremlin is saying Mr Yanukovich will go to Moscow in early March.

There are no announcements about a visit to a Western European capital yet.

Ukraine's Tymoshenko Drops Legal Challenge On Election

KIEV, Ukraine -- Ukrainian Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko on Saturday dropped her legal case challenging the election of rival Viktor Yanukovich as president, saying the court could not be trusted to reach a fair verdict.
The about-turn by the fiery Tymoshenko left the way clear for Yanukovich to be inaugurated as president on Feb. 25 as scheduled. His first announced trip abroad as president will be to Moscow, according to comments by his party and the Kremlin.

The charismatic 49-year-old prime minister, who had alleged vote cheating by her opponent in the Feb. 7 runoff and had been pressing for a new round of voting, said she withdrew her case as the court had refused to study the evidence put before it.

She insisted Yanukovich had not been legitimately elected.

"It became clear to us that the court has not given itself the aim of establishing the truth," she told the Higher Administrative Court.

"Under these circumstances, we simply do not see the reason for continuing with this case being considered. We are withdrawing our suit."

Yanukovich, 59, has denied any vote-rigging by his side. He beat Tymoshenko by 3.5 percentage points in the vote.

Few commentators had expected Tymoshenko to win the court action, which she launched on Friday with a plea to the 49 judges to "study carefully" the evidence before it. But her sudden announcement on Saturday took most by surprise.

With her hair plaited in her trademark peasant braid, she looked tired and tense on Saturday as she announced her climb-down after months of battling with Yanukovich for the leadership of the former Soviet republic of 46 million.

Tymoshenko had been pressing for a new presidential vote as took place in the 2004 "Orange Revolution" which ended with President Viktor Yushchenko being elected. Yanukovich was denied the top job then by protests against electoral fraud.

"A fraudulent vote took place and the will of the people was fraudulently handled. Sooner or later, an honest prosecutor's office and an honest court will come to the view that Yanukovich was not elected president of Ukraine and that the will of the people was falsified," she said.

The court later confirmed it would cease studying the case.

"The court is deprived of the possibility to continue examination of the suit and is obliged to leave the case without its examination," Judge Oleksander Nechytaylo told a closing hearing. "This decision is final and cannot be reviewed."

MOSCOW VISIT

Yanukovich is expected to tilt Ukraine towards Russia after relations with Moscow deteriorated under Yushchenko.

Russian President Dmitry Medvedev spoke to Yanukovich on the telephone and congratulated him on his "complete and final, legitimate and internationally recognised victory in Ukraine's presidential election", the Kremlin said.

Yanukovich will visit Moscow in the first 10 days of March.

Yanukovich has said he wants to renegotiate a gas deal with Russia struck by Tymoshenko after a three-week stand off with Moscow that led to supply cuts to Europe.

There has been talk of Russia's participation in a group to run Ukraine's pipeline network and of a loan from Moscow. Russia also wants to extend the stay of its Black Sea fleet, stationed on Ukraine's territory under a lease that runs out in 2017.

Ukraine now badly needs to return to stability -- its economy took a battering in the global downturn with valuable steel exports losing markets and the state has relied on a $16.4 billion bail-out programme from the International Monetary Fund.

This has been suspended because of breached promises, and the fund will return only once a stable government emerges.

After a bitter campaign of smears and insults, Yanukovich has ruled out any alliance with Tymoshenko and has asked her to quit. She has refused and can be replaced only if the Yanukovich camp forges a new coalition among the fickle deputies in parliament -- normally a long and tricky task. If he fails to do this, he may be forced to call early parliamentary election.

Views of Kiev and Odessa

Views of Kiev and Odessa

Lawmakers Say Heads Will Roll for Dismal Olympic Performance

Five days into the Winter Olympics, lawmakers were already calling for blood Thursday, saying that top sports officials should be canned for the national team's dismal showing so far.

The nationalist Liberal Democratic Party, or LDPR, initiated the howls, calling on Russian Olympic Committee chief Leonid Tyagachyov to resign immediately.Vitaly Mutko, the sports, tourism and youth politics minister, should also step down if the Russian team "does not start winning," the party said in a statement.

The current state of Russian sports elicits bitterness and offense among all Russian citizens," said the statement, signed by Igor Lebedev, head of the party's faction in the State Duma. "The time for slogans and appeals has passed. In four years, Russia will host the Olympics in Sochi."

Later on Thursday, Duma Speaker Boris Gryzlov, of the ruling United Russia party, said the Vancouver Olympics would be considered a failure if Russia placed anywhere below fourth in the medals table.

The national team has earned just three medals so far — gold, silver and bronze — putting it 11th overall. Going into the games, Izvestia had reported that top Russian sports officials were counting on a total of 30 medals, including seven to 11 golds, although Tyagachyov has attributed those figures to individual sports federations' goals.

"Anything less than an overall fourth-place finish for the team would absolutely be a failure," Gryzlov told reporters in response to a question about Lebedev's statement, Interfax reported.

He cautioned that a decision should only be made once the Olympics are completed, however. Tyagachyov and Mutko will be called to speak in the Duma in March, and "any parliamentary faction will be able … to express its concern," Gryzlov said.

But Olympic speed skating champion Svetlana Zhurova, now a deputy speaker in the Duma with United Russia, said nothing would change if Tyagachyov and Mutko were forced to step down.

She said sports federations were responsible for success and failure at the highest levels and that top officials were unable to ask anything of them because the federations are independent.

"We can't separate sports federations and break them off from other social organizations. But they're totally on their own now, and no one can tell them what to do — the sports ministry has no way of exerting its influence," Zhurova told Interfax.

Ivan Melnikov, a Communist deputy speaker in the Duma, also said the firings would do little to help. He suggested that Finance Minster Alexei Kudrin and United Russia be held responsible for their federal budgets, RIA-Novosti reported.

In an interview to Radio Mayak on Tuesday, Mutko called for patience, saying the national team usually got off to a slow start at the Winter Games.

Tyagachyov, for his part, said cross-country skier Alexander Panzhinsky's silver medal — after a photo finish with Russian teammate Nikita Kryukov — was as good as gold.

"That's two golds — those two golden guys showed that we're strong," Tyagachyov told RIA-Novosti. "Mutko and I are worrying, although we're not showing it. But we're sure that it will all fall into place, because we're working a lot."

Medvedev Orders Deep Police Reforms

President Dmitry Medvedev on Thursday pressed ahead with a drive for reforms in the scandal-plagued Interior Ministry, ordering sweeping personnel cuts in the ministry's massive bureaucracy and promising harsh punishment for police who break the law.

At a meeting with top Interior Ministry officials, Medvedev said he had ordered the number of personnel at the ministry's head office to be halved to about 10,000. He also dismissed two deputy interior ministers and 16 senior police officials.

Medvedev vowed to take personal control of the reforms and said wave of violent crimes committed by police officers over the past year had "eroded" the authority of police.

"A series of incidents have caused a strong public reaction, eroding the authority of the Interior Ministry and its personnel," Medvedev said. "The responsibility of Interior Ministry personnel on all levels will be strengthened."

He said he had given Interior Minister Rashid Nurgaliyev one month to formulate measures to combat police abuses and attract better recruits to the police force.

Critics have dismissed previous attempts to implement police reforms as half-hearted and superficial, but the personnel cuts announced by Medvedev on Thursday were far from minor. He fired two of Nurgaliyev's deputies — Nikolai Ovchinnikov and Arkady Yevdeleyev — and replaced them with senior members of the presidential administration: Sergei Gerasimov and Sergei Bulavin.

The move indicates that Medvedev may be trying to install his own people in key positions in law enforcement agencies. Bulavin is a former police general, while Gerasimov worked as a deputy prosecutor general before joining the presidential administration.

Medvedev also sacked the top police officials in eight regions and replaced them with new appointees.

Former police general Alexei Volkov, a State Duma deputy with the ruling United Russia party, told The Moscow Times on Thursday that the political will exists to carry out substantive reforms. "There is an … understanding that doing nothing is not an option," said Volkov, deputy head of the Duma's security committee who attended Thursday's meeting with Medvedev.

A poll released by the respected Levada Center this week showed that more than two-thirds of Russians do not trust police.

A supermarket shooting rampage last year by Moscow police major Denis Yevsukov, who killed two and injured seven, has become the most egregious example of police abuse over the last year. But reports of police harassment, violence and corruption are routine.

Medvedev told Thursday's meeting that authorities had opened about 15,000 criminal cases involving corruption, but that the figure was "just the tip of the iceberg."

Nurgaliyev, meanwhile, told Thursday's meeting that police officers themselves are increasingly being threatened with violence and blackmail by civilians. The ministry's internal affairs department received more than 1,000 complaints from police officers last year involving purported crimes committed against them by citizens, Nurgaliyev said.

Experts and police officers themselves say meager police salaries breed corruption, and Medvedev on Thursday said salaries would be boosted for police officers, who earn on average anywhere between $300 and $660, depending on their region.
 
As part of the reforms, the Interior Ministry will also transfer the country's network of drunk tanks to the Health and Social Development Ministry. Established during Soviet times, drunk tanks faced increased scrutiny in recent months after a Russian journalist in a Tomsk drunk tank was beaten to death by a police officer on duty.

Stalin Billboards for Victory Day

City Hall plans to set up billboards in central Moscow to explain dictator Josef Stalin's role in the Soviet victory over Nazi Germany, an idea that has drawn criticism from a senior state official and rights activists alike.

The billboards will be erected on the request of "numerous veterans organizations" in time for Victory Day on May 9 as part of the celebrations of the 65th anniversary of the defeat of Germany in World War II.

The Stalin billboards will be placed at traditional meeting places of veterans on Poklonnaya Gora, Manezh Square, Gogolevsky Bulvar, Sokolniki Park, Vorobyovy Gory and several other places, Makarov said.

The content of the billboards will be sent for approval either to the Defense Ministry's Institute of Military History or to the Central Museum of the Great Patriotic War in Moscow, Makarov said.

Blind Eye Turned to Counterfeit Cell Phones

It's a typical sight in many of Moscow's electronics markets: a 3,000 ruble Blackberry, a gold-plated Nokia and an iPhone with a television antenna.

Counterfeit and other illegal mobile phones have been flooding into the country, but while law enforcement, mobile providers and phone makers have all pledged to tackle the problem, illegal mobile phones continue to be openly sold in most electronics markets with impunity.

Counterfeit phones currently make up 2 percent to 3 percent of the Russian market, according to estimates by Mobiset.ru, a telecoms portal. Total contraband phones, a category that includes both counterfeit and authentic phones that have been smuggled into the country, account for about half of all mobile phones currently sold in Russia.

Counterfeit phones are pouring into the country almost exclusively from China, giving consumers the option of choosing anything from a cheap, disposable knockoff to a high-quality reproduction at a fraction of the price.

Counterfeit mobiles can be divided into three main groups, ranging from low-quality knockoffs to exact copies of the latest models, said Eldar Murtazin, editor of telecoms portal Mobile Review.

"The first category are mobile gadgets that are labeled 'Nukua' or something that sounds like a well-known brand and can only be mistaken as genuine from a distance," he said.

"The second type is a more precise copy, which looks much like the original one and has an official logo, but offers a primitive interface. You can also find a high-quality falsification made of decent materials, using exact copies of the original microchips and even screws."

The last group includes the exact replicas, which have the unit's original software installed and for which the only visible difference from the original is the price — which is several times lower.

Moscow's markets are flooded with the imitations, ranging from cheap knockoffs with "enhancements" added, to jewel-studded luxury brands.

"Here is one that looks exactly like an iPhone 3G. It costs 3,400 rubles ($114), but I can give you a small discount if you will take the memory card too," said Sergei, a salesman from Savyolovsky Market, who pointed to iPhone-like gadgets, all of which are sporting a small, sliding television antenna and slots for two SIM cards, options that a real iPhone 3G doesn't have.

Sergei, who wouldn't give his last name because of the illegal nature of his enterprise, also offered a more expensive model that was labeled as containing 32 gigabytes of memory. But it only works well with 16 gigabytes, the salesman said, advising a reporter not to "put too much memory in, or it will freeze up."

Both phones had the Apple logo, but fine print on the back said, "Designed by Cpple in California, made in China," an apparent attempt by the manufacturer to protect itself from trademark lawsuits.

A spokeswoman for Apple Europe wouldn't give an estimate for how much it loses from falsifications or say whether the company is fighting the illegal trade at all.

Sellers say China is the sole source of counterfeit mobile handsets that make it to Moscow markets.

"I don't really know who exactly manufactures these 'masterpieces,'" Sergei said, "but they are assembled in China where there are numerous illegal factories."

The factories are technically operating underground, but look like legal assembly lines, said Murtazin, who recently visited a factory near Guangzhou, an industrial Chinese city near Hong Kong.

"The producers work underground and are sometimes raided by the police, but they still manage to function normally," he said. "I remember trying to take pictures in Guangzhou at a shopping center where they sell these fakes, but they thought I was from an international phone company, and the guide told me to delete the pictures if I wanted to leave the market unharmed."

Other knockoffs run the gamut from the absurd to the gaudy.

Another salesman at Savyolovsky was selling a so-called iPhone 2G, a replica of the original iPhone — only half the size. "We call it a mini-iPhone, a good present for a lady. Only 4,600 rubles!" he said.

A Vertu Ascent Ferrari 1947 Limited Edition, which is on sale for 7,480 euros ($10,500) in an official Vertu shop in Moscow, is on sale for just 8,000 rubles in Gorbushkin Dvor, a market in the west of Moscow.

"Few would see the difference. Look, ours has leather, titanium and looks exactly the same. So why pay more?" a seller said.

A golden-plated Nokia 8800 with rhinestones, selling for 3,000 rubles instead of the 70,000 to 80,000 ruble price tag for a genuine model, and a phone resembling a Blackberry but labeled as "Bloakberry" were the "hot sales hits," another seller at Savyolovsky said.

"Counterfeit phones are one of our most serious problems," Viktoria Yeremina, a spokeswoman at Nokia Eurasia, said in e-mailed comments. "They not only damage the brand, but they can be dangerous for users," she said.

"We have a special team working in China, and we also fight bootlegged goods in other countries, and naturally, in Russia."

Spokespeople for Vertu and Research in Motion could not be reached for comment.

It's unclear how much help the phone makers are getting from Russian law enforcement, however, as two Interior Ministry departments each said the other was responsible for dealing with trafficking in illegal smartphones.

"We can't assign a police officer to every salesman of illegal goods. This will just not work," said Andrei Pilipchuk, a spokesman for the Interior Ministry's economic security department. "We curb the channels of illegal supplies on a strategic level."

"Illegal dealers bribe officials at customs and carry whatever they want to inside the country, whether it be phones or other gadgets, in containers that may be listed as 'clothes' in customs forms, for example," he said.

Plipchuk directed all further questions to the Interior Ministry's department "K," which is tasked with dealing with high-tech crimes.

A spokeswoman for department "K" said only that the department didn't deal with illegally imported smartphones and directed all further questions back to the economic security department.

If a smartphone makes it through the border, it is as good as sold, so the most effective way to curtail the sale of counterfeit phones is at the border.

The Federal Customs Service discovered 7 million units of counterfeit goods and initiated more than 1,000 legal cases countrywide in the first two weeks of 2010 alone, said a spokesman for the customs service, who declined to be identified. He did not say how many of these cases involved counterfeit phones.

"Counterfeit phones are usually smuggled in peoples' luggage in lots that rarely exceed 200 to 300 units, which on average are valued at 600,000 to 2 million rubles," the spokesman said.

In every shipment that crosses the border, customs officials crosscheck the names of the product and the importer with a database to confirm that the importer is officially accredited by the manufacturer to sell the goods in Russia.

"In some cases when we have doubts, we detain the goods and consult the manufacturer to find out whether the goods are of legal origin," he said.

But heading off all illegal phones at the border runs the risk of throwing out the baby with the bathwater.

The introduction of the iPhone 3Gs into Russia has been pushed back several times because of customs problems. Last month, RIA-Novosti quoted sources close to mobile operators as saying new customs regulations were hampering the introduction of Apple's smartphone on the Russian market.

According to new customs regulations that went into force on Jan. 1, importers of radios and other electronic devices must get licenses and inform the Federal Security Service if the devices have encoding functions.

Theoretically, it should be easier to curtail the counterfeit phone trade at the point of sale. But unlike smuggling, which is easy to prove and get a court ruling on, selling counterfeit phones falls under a number of articles of the Administrative and Criminal codes, and it is difficult to successfully prosecute such cases, lawyers say.

"The police say they lack expertise to differentiate fake smartphones from the genuine ones, which could be true in the case of high-tech sophisticated falsifications," said Oleg Moskvitin, a senior lawyer with Muranov, Chernyakov & Partners. "But most Chinese fakes have defects, or, alternatively, have an abundance of functions that the original model does not offer, so in most cases it is easy to track those."

Even if law enforcement did crack down on illegal phone retailers, it would be a piecemeal effort, requiring them to prosecute individual sellers rather than the markets at which they are sold.

"The trade center itself does not sell mobiles — they lease properties to tenants who may be honest businessmen or may not be," Moskvitin said. "The news of a 'piracy orgy' on the territory of a trade center or a market creates reputational and political risks, rather than legal risks, which, however, may result in the closure of the property, as was the case with the old Gorbushka."

A chaotic outdoor weekend flea market near the Gorbunov recreation center in the west of Moscow was closed in 2001 after an anti-piracy campaign orchestrated by city authorities, but a new modern trade center with the same name was soon opened nearby.

The most effective tool to fight counterfeit phones is in the hands of mobile operators, but they may be loathe to use it.

All legally produced phones are hardwired with an International Mobile Equipment Identity, a unique code assigned to each device, which would allow operators to immediately detect when a call was placed from an illegal phone.

In December, mobile operators in India blocked all phones that didn't have an IMEA code, rendering useless most counterfeit phones.

But to do so would not necessarily be in the interest of Russian operators, who would be effectively dropping many of their subscribers.

"The problem is that phone operators are more interested in getting as many subscribers as possible and don't care about the fakes," said Sergei Vasin, a telecommunications analyst at Metropol.

Mobile operators say they are against the use of illegal phones, as they can damage the operators' networks, but that they cannot solve the problem on their own.

"It is impossible to fight [illegal trade] using only the resources of the mobile operators," Ksenia Korneyeva, a spokesperson for Beeline, said in e-mailed comments.

She said blocking illegal phones by tracking their IMEI could be a useful tool, but doesn't look like a realistic option quite yet.

"We should first work out the technical procedure necessary to carry out this project, the logistics and the areas of responsibility," she said.

"Of course, phone handsets can be identified by IMEI code, and it is logical that one IMEI should correspond to one particular phone. But sometimes phones can be cloned, in which case a large number of devices are assigned one IMEI," she said.

But while mobile operators and law enforcement mull over how best to deal with the issue, sellers aren't particularly worried that their trade is in any danger.

One retailer of illegal phones at Savyolovsky brushed off concerns about the legality of his trade. "If everyone does this here, it is supposed to be OK."

Ukraine: A Tale Of Two Elections

KIEV, Ukraine -- The victory of the “pro-Russian” Opposition candidate, Viktor Yanukovych, in Ukraine's presidential election was greeted with dismay in the West as a setback to the “orange revolution” the United States and Europe helped orchestrate in the country five years ago.
The western media, however, took some consolation from the fact that the 2010 election was a clean and democratic race. This, they said, stood in stark contrast to the 2004 election, which was rigged in favour of Mr. Yanukovych, provoking large-scale street protests in capital Kiev.

The “orange revolution” overturned Mr. Yanukovych's victory and vaulted his pro-western rival, Viktor Yushchenko, into presidency. Mr. Yanukovych has since become “contaminated with the ‘Orange virus',” as The Times put it, and the bad guy of the 2004 poll won a fraud-free election.

How far does this story square with reality? It would be interesting to compare the results of the 2004 and 2010 elections. In 2004, Mr. Yanukovych polled 49.46 per cent of the votes against Mr. Yushchenko's 46.61 in the run-off that was later overturned by the “orange revolution.”

The 2010 vote tally was remarkably similar: Mr. Yanukovych garnered 48.95 per cent against 45.47 for Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko, former “orange” ally-turned-foe of Mr. Yushchenko.

Could it be just a coincidence? Hardly so, if we look at the way the Ukrainian regions voted in both elections. In 2004, Mr. Yanukovych won 80-90 per cent of the votes in Russian-speaking eastern and southern provinces and Mr. Yushchenko received just as strong support in the western and central regions, oriented towards Europe.

The east-west divide was strikingly evident again in the 2006 parliamentary election, in which Mr. Yanukovych's Party of the Regions won most votes.

In the Yanukovych-Tymoshenko faceoff in 2010, the pattern of voting was once again the same — the east and south voted for Mr. Yanukovych, and the west and the centre gave their votes to Ms Tymoshenko.

This means the support base of the pro-Russian and pro-western candidates remains the same as it was five years ago. Those who voted for Mr. Yanukovych in 2004 backed him again in 2010.

The identical results refute the claim that in 2004, Mr. Yanukovych's returns were heavily padded, and in 2010 they were not. Yet the same western observers who denounced Mr. Yanukovych's victory in 2004 as fraudulent, in 2010 hailed it as “an impressive display of democratic elections.”

Interestingly, the 2004 electoral violations were never properly investigated, and nobody was punished maybe because, as many analysts claimed, both sides resorted to rigging.

In 2004, the U.S. and other NATO countries refused to accept the legitimacy of Mr. Yanukovych's election and sent a high-power team of “mediators” to Kiev to push for a cancellation of the vote.

A re-run of the run-off between Mr. Yanukovych and Mr. Yushchenko brought victory to the “orange revolution” leader with the score 52-44. However, the outcome was heavily impacted by media hysteria over alleged vote rigging and the West's massive support for the Opposition leader.

This year, western leaders, including U.S. President Barack Obama, congratulated Mr. Yanukovych on his victory without even waiting for the losing side to take its case to court. The West ignored Ms Tymoshenko's allegation that electoral fraud in the eastern and southern regions was just as bad as in 2004 and exceeded the 10,00,000-vote lead the official count gave to Mr. Yanukovych.

“The so-called Orange Revolution … was essentially political theatre (or political circus) not more legitimate than the presidential elections that it overturned,” says analyst Vladimir Belaeff of the U.S. Global Society Institute.

Why did the U.S. and Europe in 2010 hail the victory of a man whom they denounced as a crook five years earlier? The western media called it the “Ukraine fatigue” — disappointment with the inefficient leadership in the past five years.

“Yushchenko proved to be one of the least competent politicians ever elected head of state,” writes U.S. Republican conservative Doug Bandow, former special assistant to President Ronald Reagan. “Ukrainian politics has been marred by corruption, vote fraud, brutal infighting and violence.”

During Mr. Yushchenko's presidency, bribery and cronyism have ballooned; his self-destructive war with the “orange” princess, Ms Tymoshenko, paralysed decision-making. Living standards declined, prices soared as the global crisis shattered Ukraine's commodity-sector economy.

“Ukraine's under-reformed economy teeters on the edge of national bankruptcy, the rule of law is elusive, courts remain corrupt and the parliament resembles a trading platform for business tycoons in which deals are made and seats bought and sold,” The Economist fumed.

However, the main reason for the “Ukraine fatigue” in the West lies in Mr. Yushchenko's foreign, rather than domestic, policies. His top-priority goals were to drag Ukraine into NATO, throw out the Russian Navy from its Soviet-era naval base in Sevastopol and turn the Black Sea into a NATO lake.

However, Ukrainian voters rejected Mr. Yushchenko's anti-Russian policy, eliminating him from the presidential race with a dismal 5 per cent of the votes. To save her campaign, Ms Tymoshenko made a U-turn, from criticising Russia to vowing to rebuild close ties with Moscow.

“As Yushchenko dramatically demonstrated, even the most committed pro-American candidate could not force his countrymen in a direction which they opposed,” said Mr. Bandow, who today works for the Cato Institute.

Mr. Yushchenko failed to advance the strategic objective of the U.S. “orange” project — tear away Ukraine from Russia and deny Russia a strategic reach in Europe and the Caucasus.

As the former U.S. National Security Adviser, Zbigniew Brzezinski, wrote in his famous book The Great Chessboard: “Without Ukraine, Russia ceases to be an empire in Eurasia.” “The Orange Revolution is dead,” Mr. Bandow wrote in the National Interest journal.

The end of the “orange” regime alters the balance of power in Eastern Europe. “Relations with Russia and the CIS [Commonwealth of Independent States, a Russia-dominated loose alliance of former Soviet republics] will be our priority,” Mr. Yanukovych said in his first statement after winning the run-off. “Our countries are closely tied by economy, history and culture.”

Mr. Yanukovych has voiced support for the Russian proposal to set up an international consortium to manage the Ukrainian gas pipelines, and called for joining the Customs Union Russia has set up with Kazakhstan and Belarus.

This shift is dictated by economic realities: Russia meets 80 per cent of Ukraine's gas needs and, together with other former Soviet states, accounts for 34 per cent of Ukrainian exports.

Russia is Ukraine's best hope of avoiding imminent national bankruptcy by playing “the role of ‘Abu Dhabi' to Ukraine's ‘Dubai',” as The Wall Street Journal put it.

Mr. Yanukovych has ruled out NATO membership for Ukraine and signalled his readiness to consider extending the basing rights of the Russian Black Sea Naval base in Sevastopol beyond 2017, when the current lease agreement expires.

Without Ukraine, the U.S.-built cordon sanitaire around Russia will fall apart. Georgia, which is still reeling from the thrashing Russia gave it in a five-day war in 2008, has lost a valuable ally.

The U.S. is unlikely to accept these strategic shifts. In contrast to the heady days of the “orange revolution,” Washington did not openly interfere with the 2010 election in Ukraine. Some suggested that Mr. Obama did not want to jeopardise his policy of “reset” with Russia.

However, Washington has repeatedly stated in recent months that the “reset” does not mean U.S. recognition of Russia's special interests in the former Soviet Union. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton stressed the point in a keynote address at Ecole Militaire in France last month.

“We object to any spheres of influence claimed in Europe in which one country seeks to control another's future,” she said.

The newly appointed U.S. Ambassador to Ukraine, John Tefft (whose previous assignment was Georgia), made it clear that the U.S. would continue its policy of driving a wedge between Ukraine and Russia.

“…We have some serious differences with the Russians over the way they conduct relations with their neighbours,” he said in one of his first interviews to the Ukrainian media. “The administration has been quite clear about the Russians in Georgia, and we have been very clear in stressing our support for the sovereignty, independence and territorial integrity in all of these countries, including Ukraine.”

The envoy said Washington remained committed to the idea of NATO membership for Ukraine.

“With regard to NATO, the Bucharest [2008 NATO summit] decision was made that Ukraine will become a member,” Ambassador Tefft said. Unless Moscow and Washington agree to extend their “reset” to the former Soviet space, the Ukrainian election will set the stage for a renewed battle for influence in Eurasia.