22 October 2012

RUSSIA / UKRAINE : 24 Oct UPDATE: Yanukovych Meets With Price Stubborn Putin; Opponent Claims Kidnapping And Torture In Confession...With Children Threatened.

http://www.csmonitor.com/World/Europe/2012/1023/In-Russia-with-love-Ukraine-president-meets-Putin-as-options-dwindle

     Ukraine President Viktor Yanukovych met with Putin in Moscow...but his hopes for lower priced nat gas are flagging.
     Putin is apparently holding a hard line...even as Ukraine's economy falters...and distance from the EU increases.
     The Russians don't trust Yanukovych...and dislike his foot dragging in rejoining Moscow's customs union.
      UPDATE!!! IST LINK CHANGE / MORE DETAILS:

       A leading member of the Putin opposition told a Russian journalist that he was kidnapped in Ukraine...and his children were threatened with death...unless he confessed.
       He said he was kidnapped by agents, taken back to Russia and tortured until he confessed to taking funding from a Georgian politician.
      Russian officials instead insist that Leonid Razvozzhayev, 39...freely confessed to plotting to accept the money...in a 10 page document.
      But...in a video...while being removed from a Moscow court...Razvozzhayev was shown shouting to the crowd that he had been kidnapped and tortured.
http://www.france24.com/en/20121024-russia-activist-told-confess-or-children-die