WASHINGTON, DC - The United States and Russia played a grand chess game in Eurasia for nearly two decades after the collapse of the Soviet Union. U.S. policy toward countries in the region essentially became а derivative of Russia policy as a result.

President Barack Obama walks with Ukraine President Viktor Yanukovych during the official arrivals for the Nuclear Security Summit in Washington on April 12, 2010.

Default and deterioration of living standards are expected to be in Ukraine, according to a famous Russian economist, president of the company Neokon Mikhil Khazin. According to him, falling of living standards in Ukraine is inevitable. This will happen either as a result of the new radical reforms carried out by new authority, or because of default, the expert said.

Arsenii Yatseniuk and other oppositionists may join the Party of Regions, according to the director of the Center for Political Research and Conflictology Mykhailo Pohrebynskyi, the MIGnews correspondent reports.

Ukraine is home to the world’s largest contingency of U.S. Peace Corps volunteers.

U.S. President John F. Kennedy hands a pen to his brother-in-law, R. Sargent Shriver, after signing legislation at the White House giving the Peace Corps permanent status, on Sept. 22, 1961. Nearly 200,000 Americans have joined the Peace Corps since, serving in 139 countries, making a difference every day.

Vasyl Klymentyev was last seen last week, when he met a colleague to discuss an article he was writing about a local prosecutor and a tax official.