Elton and the creeps

On Saturday Sir Elton John is staging a concert on the Maydan in Kyiv, but today president Yushchenko and his wife opened an exhibition of photographs from Sir Elton's private collection which being shown at the Pinchuk Art Centre.

Sir Elton thanked Viktor Pinchuk's wife - ex-pres Kuchma's daughter Olena Franchuk for her anti-AIDS charity work. The bash was attended by BYuT deputy Yevhen Hubskiy, NU's Petro Poroshenko, and Industrial Union of Donbas boss Serhiy Taruta.

Also 'brown-nosing' were Kuchma himself, ex-PM Yuriy Yekhanurov, transport minister Mykola Rudkovsky and minister for emergencies Nestor Shufrych. Some photos here - looks as if Andy Yush was there too.

Yesterday US ambassador in Ukraine William Taylor visited the Donbas region, and was interviewed by journalists of "Donbass" newspaper. He had visited a mine in which Ukrainian and US specialists were working together to improve safety.

He praises Ukraine's high economic growth rate, but says that the early VR elections are slowing down foreign investments. He claimed that Yanukovych made a good impression and helped to improve the image of Ukraine in the eyes of American people during his recent visit. Yuliya Tymoshenko's visit proved to be successful too, and he hoped that soon other Ukrainian politicians and statesmen would visit the USA, although this is unlikely before the elections take place, "because we would not wish the impression to be created, that the US Government is interfering in the Ukrainian election campaign."