Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych isn't letting traffic on the way to the office get him down any more. He's rising above it. Literally.
In the coming months, a helicopter will begin chauffeuring Yanukovych to the center of Kiev from his suburban residence and back. Yanukovych's chief of staff, Serghiy Lyovochkin, said Friday that the president was doing the capital a favor by unclogging the streets that he currently travels in his motorcade. Police close off entire avenues for that.
The move may anger ordinary Ukrainians, who accuse the government of corruption and wasting state funds, especially if Prime Minister Mykola Azarov also gets a chopper, as Lyovochkin said might be the case.
Lyovochkin refused to say how much the presidential helicopter would cost.
President Dmitry Medvedev and Prime Minister Vladimir Putin take motorcades to work in central Moscow.
(AP, MT)