Russian soccer fans concerned about making it to Kyiv for the Euro 2012 championships need worry no longer. Prime Minister Vladimir Putin has announced the country's leading airlines will provide free transport to and from at least some of the Russian team's matches.

It is as predictable as snow in a Russian winter. When Moscow has a tussle with one of its neighbors, Russian health officials suddenly discover something wrong with that country's exports.

A leading global index of economic freedom has ranked Ukraine near the bottom for the third straight year. The country ranked alongside Uzbekistan and Chad and was the least-free among the 43 countries in the Europe region. The results are dismal since the government of President Viktor Yanukovych has been promising much-needed reforms since he took office at the beginning of 2010. But Ukrainian businesses are yet to feel the results.

The defense team of Yulia Tymoshenko say the former Ukrainian prime minister's treatment in prison is nothing short of torture. Prison officials say the jail conditions meet European standards.

On January 1, Denmark takes over the rotating EU presidency for a six-month stint likely to focus on the continuing economic crisis in the teetering eurozone.

Everyone makes mistakes, but most of us suffer our embarrassments in private. Not so people in the public eye, whose gaffes and missteps make instant headlines.

As the Soviet Union careened toward collapse in 1991, no country was watching the unfolding events more closely than the United States. Washington had no control over events and didn't know whether the outcome would help or hurt U.S. national interests.