Following the miserable defeat of the candidate it backed at the Ukrainian presidential election last year, the Kremlin appears to have weathered the first shock and is now poised to come back in style.

Two Ukrainian government missions, one led by President Viktor Yushchenko to Japan and another by his top security advisor, Petro Poroshenko to China, are essentially pushing for one thing: How to marry the country??™s aerospace sector to its counterparts in Asia. All this seems to be a perfect match.

Two months ago Prime Minister Viktor Yanukovych, a presidential hopeful, slammed the idea of exit polls. The reason: ???It??™s a new technique. We do not know how to manipulate it.??? Well, he may have learned it by now.

KIEV, Dec. 12 - It wasn??™t bad sushi as some Ukrainian officials had suggested. It was dioxin, a highly toxic chemical, which was used to poison opposition leader Viktor Yushchenko. A very important question was answered. But the more important question is: Who did it?

Oops, Russian President Vladimir Putin did it again. In front of television cameras in Crimea on Nov. 12 he kissed Prime Minister Viktor Yanukovych, fueling an intrigue about this pair??™s strange relationship.

KIEV, Dec. 5 - OK, here is the deal: You vote to approve changes to the constitution reducing powers of the next president right now, and maybe we will stop rigging votes to let you finally become the president.

KIEV, Dec. 1 - You stole my votes. You falsified the election. You are evil. Please be my president. Weird? Not for the Communist Party of Ukraine.

KIEV, Dec. 1 - Serhiy Tyhypko, who managed the campaign of Prime Minister Viktor Yanukovych, does not like the idea of rerunning the presidential runoff vote. The argument: his patron will lose. Instead, Tyhypko has a better idea: Tyhypko for president.