Shuba died with smile on his face..

Today's 'Segodnya' has a melodramatic write-up on Volodymyr Shuba's funeral [so soon? - see previous posting for more on this guy] entitled:

"Eyewitnesses: Shuba's face says his death was not an accident"

"A sarcastic smile was frozen on it, as if he knew who shot him," a colleague from the prosecutor's office who wished to preserve anonymity told us... "and the corners of his lips were unnaturally turned down".

"People got a shock," a colleague agreed - "Volodymyr Vasylyevich has a strange strip on the cheek, like a twisted jaw".

Rumours about the non accidental nature of the death of the city prosecutor strengthened after the funeral. "The death of Shuba was a slap to the law-enforcement system," said former-colleague, Ministry of Internal Affairs Colonel Aleksey Goncharov.

A person, who knew Shuba well gave 'Segodnya' a gloomy prediction: "The prosecutor is not the first nor the last victim of battle for power in the Dnipropetrovsk, or of raiders' seizures of property. He got involved wherever it was necessary and wherever it was not - in any building site, any market."

The source criticises the investigators of Shuba's death for constantly changing their story, and ends: "Accident? Don't be stupid. They rang me and told me: "That bent-barrelled gun of Kushnaryov's has been fired a second time…"

The article describes the official version of events surrounding Shuba's death, but the head of "International Anti-terrorist Unity" Colonel of the Reserve Alexander Dichek, expressed himself on this version thus: “Yes, the investigation must establish the cause [of death]. But the trajectory described resembles, please excuse me, circus tightrope walking”. [tsirkovuyu ekvilibristiku]

P.S. This from Bloomberg: The global financial crisis is hitting more vulnerable emerging markets as investors shun riskier assets in countries with big current-account deficits in a flight to safety. Ukraine has the worst creditworthiness of Europe's emerging markets, based on the cost of credit-default swaps, which protect bondholders against default.