The 29-year-old Londoner landed a handful of big left-right combinations in the early rounds that troubled the towering Russian, who could not pin the quick Haye to the ropes.

Alexei Dymovsky, a police major in the Krasnodar region city of Novorossiisk, said Sunday on Ekho Moskvy radio that he fears for his life and his family after his video addresses to the prime minister became an Internet sensation over the weekend.

Vedomosti says RusAl and its lawyers are bombarding its reporters with threatening phone calls and e-mails after an Oct. 26 article.

Moscow remains beholden to the Russian economic boom, which in turn directly depends on oil prices, and if they fall again in coming months, the city's real estate bubble may burst spectacularly.

Even the most seemingly trivial factor can spark a historical event.

Yevgeny Skripelev also said his client had been motivated by personal animosity and was not linked to any ultranationalist groups.

Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko, however, insisted that there would be no delays and the country would get a new president Jan. 17.

On that cold night twenty years ago, decades of separation and anxiety melted into the unbelievable reality of a future without border guards, secret police, informers and rigid communist control.

Capitalism’s failure to lift living standards, impose the rule of law and tame flourishing corruption and nepotism has given way to fond memories of the times when the jobless rate was zero, food was cheap and social safety was high.

The finance minister also said he was concerned that asset price bubbles might materialize because of massive rapid capital inflows.