About an hour and a half ago, at 7:25 pm Moscow time, a Russian information agency RosBalt (I'm not 100 percent sure but I think it's based in St. Pete) reported that Yanukovych was meeting with Putin. Here's the translation of this news item:

KYIV, Jan. 23 - Ex-prime minister of Ukraine, Victor Yanukovych, arrived in Moscow in the evening of Jan. 22. Rosbalt learned about this from sources close to the president of Ukraine. According to the source, Yanukovych has already had meetings with the speaker of the Russian parliament, Boris Gryzlov, and the head of the presidential administration, Dmitry Medvedev. It has also been reported that Victor Yanukovych is currently meeting with Vladimir Putin, president of the Russian Federation. They are allegedly discussing a possibility [for Yanukovych] to head the opposition in Ukraine in 2006.

Beginning Oct. 1, 2005, the constitutional reform comes into effect in Ukraine, after which the Ukrainian state turns into a virtually parliamentary republic. Yanukovych hopes to get no less than 50 percent of supporters in the parliamentary election in spring 2006, and then, having become the head of the parliament, to virtually head the country.

Sources close to Yushchenko anticipate that, during the negotiations to be held in Moscow Monday, Jan. 24, Yanukovych might ask Putin not to indulge Yushchenko. In particular, he might ask not to introduce dual citizenship, to carry out strict energy (gas supplies) policy, and to cancel 90-day registration.

Victor Yanukovych was the chief opponent of Victor Yushchenko. During the election campain in Ukraine Russian president Vladimir Putin expressed his support for Yanukovych.

(I hate to translate, especially texts that are so badly written...)

If this turns out to be true, it's gonna be quite a nasty surprise. Yushchenko would have to cancel his tomorrow's visit to Moscow, definitely.

But it may also be nothing more than just rumors spread with some obscure purpose. These people can't write properly, but they also can't think straight: not introducing dual citizenship would not be a blow to Yushchenko at all - he never stood for that, it was part of Yanukovych's bullshit campaign. Also, it's not the 90-day registration but the lack of thereof - for Ukrainian citizens visiting Russia, a measure adopted by Russia on the eve of the election, in order to aid the Yanukovych campaign people in making him more appealing; before that, we had to register with the police within three days of entering Russia.

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In a separate item, Rosbalt is also reporting that Poroshenko has already been offered the premiership.