Not in the face..Not in the face..

Before the O.R. PM Yanukovych was well known to be a man in possession of 'a useful pair of fists.' There have been reports that he may be experiencing difficulty controlling his temper again.

An 'informed source' from the KabMin secretariat says that recently the Minister of Justice Oleksandr Lavrynovych was the first to experience 'the treatment' when he was summoned for a 'dressing down'.

Yanukovych is alleged to have 'hit the minister in the rib cage, and when he fell, hit him in the kidney area'. The minister then ran out of the PM's office and left the building without even picking up his coat from the cloakroom.

Later KabMin minister Anatoliy Tolstoukhov [literally Mr Thickear] was also summoned on the carpet, but this time it is said he was just hit in the liver by the PM, allegedly for failing to publish the law on the KabMin on time.

Lavrynovych's press secretary has denied that his boss was even in Kyiv when the incidents were supposed to have taken place..

And at yesterday's NSDC meeting chaired by the president and attended by Yanukovych and half of the cabinet, the proceedings were distrupted by the ringing of someone's mobile phone. It turned out the phone belonged to deputy PM, and Minister of Finances Mykola Azarov, who was admonished by an annoyed president rather in the manner of a lecturer telling off a pupil. Azarov sheepishly opened up his briefcase and turned off the 'phone. Embarrassingly [hee..hee] for him, the whole incident was recorded - you can watch the video-clip here.