We're back from Istanbul but, as usual, I'm not fully here yet, so it'll take a while before I start posting regularly. I'll have some pictures pretty soon, though.

Istanbul is the best city in the world.

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So much news - Zvarych, Ukrainians detained in Belarus, Victory Day, Piskun and the Gongadze case - and I don't know what to begin with.

Okay, the most recent item: Yushchenko has changed his mind and will probably be coming to Moscow on May 9, not May 8, according to Tomenko and Ukrainska Pravda (in Ukrainian). He'll watch the parade here and then fly back to Kyiv right away in order to be present for celebrations there. Politics is so pointless.

At the Sheremetyevo airport and on the way downtown there are so many Victory Day posters of all styles, colors and content that I was feeling really dizzy by the time we got home yesterday, after digesting most of them. It must have cost a fortune to get all that stuff printed - what a waste.