RUSSIA: Russian leader Mr Vladimir Putin has no role in tomorrow's Ukrainian presidential elections, but to many voters it is starting to feel like it writes Chris Stephen in Moscow.
On Tuesday Mr Putin gave a live interview on Ukrainian TV, praising the policies of candidate Viktor Yanukovich, the current prime minister.
And two days later he stood with him, and Mr Yanukovich's backer, outgoing President Leonid Kuchma, to show support during a military review in the capital, Kiev.
Officially, Mr Putin is in the country to help celebrate the 60th anniversary of Kiev's liberation from the Nazis. But the fact that this celebration was brought forward - the actual date falls after the election - has heightened speculation that the government is trying to use patriotism to boost the vote, with Mr Putin on hand to help.
The Russian president made clear in his television interview that he hoped for greater integration between the two nations, which were once joined in the Soviet Union until it dissolved in 1991.
Mr Putin told the Ukrainians: "Our main goal here is to achieve free movement of labour, capital, goods and services."
All this is seen as giving a firm endorsement from Russia for Mr Yanukovich, who is expected to continue the pro-Moscow policies of Mr Kuchma if elected tomorrow.
Russia has pointedly not joined in warnings from the United States and the European Union about the likelihood of Sunday's poll being rigged by the government.
Mr Putin's support comes with the prime minister neck-and-neck with the main opposition candidate, the liberal Mr Viktor Yushchenko, who has publicly labelled Mr Kuchma and his allies as criminals.
And the Russian president's high profile has sharpened the sense that Ukraine's election on Sunday will determine which way it faces: towards the East and Russia if Mr Yanukovich wins, or to the European Union under Mr Yushchenko.
This follows sharply different reactions to another election, in neighbouring Belarus earlier this month, when President Alexander Lukashenko secured the votes to let him change the constitution and run for a third term.
Officials from the Organisation for Security and Co-operation in Europe, which monitored the poll, said the Belarus vote was rigged. But Russia's foreign ministry announced that the referendum, held in conjunction with parliamentary elections, was "calm and transparent".
Critics in Moscow say support from the Kremlin for controversial elections is undermining democracy across the Commonwealth of Independent States, which once made up the Soviet Union. "There is a pernicious and disturbing tendency for 'worst political practice' in one CIS country to be exported to other CIS countries," said an editorial in this week's Moscow Times.