Zee Beam News

06-11-2009 - (Reuters by Conor Humphries) - MOSCOW, Russia has dismissed its ambassador to Ukraine, former prime minister Viktor Chernomyrdin, the Kremlin said in a statement on Thursday. Chernomyrdin, 71, who had served as Russia's ambassador to Ukraine since 2001, watched relations between the countries deteriorate sharply when the Orange Revolution in 2004 brought pro-West President Viktor Yushchenko to power in Kiev. Once one of the most powerful men in Russian gas export monopoly, Gazprom, Chernomyrdin's final years as ambassador were marked by bitter disputes between Russia and Ukraine over gas deliveries. Russian prime minister from 1992 to 1998, Chernomyrdin was on Thursday appointed an adviser to the Russian president, the Kremlin statement said.