Poland's acting president, Bronislaw Komorowski, has one of the highest ratings of any Polish politician in recent years, the Polish News Agency reported on Wednesday, citing pollster CBOS.

Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin visited an oil platform on the Russian part of the Caspian Sea on Wednesday to launch industrial oil production by Russia's largest independent oil producer, LUKoil.

A new constitution in Kyrgyzstan will turn the ex-Soviet Central Asian republic into a new state, an interim deputy prime minister said on Wednesday.

Ukrainian Prime Minister Mykola Azarov on Wednesday accused his predecessor Yulia Tymoshenko and her government of causing 100 billion hryvnas ($12.5 billion) in state losses.

Russia's federal archive agency will provide access to digital copies of documents on the Katyn massacre to end speculations about their authenticity, the agency's chief said on Wednesday.

The Kyrgyz Prosecutor General's Office charged nine officials in connection with the violent crackdown on demonstrators in Bishkek in early April, which left dozens of people dead, the 24.kg news agency said on Wednesday.

Kyrgyzstan's opposition took power on April 7 amid violent unrest in which more than 80 people died and over 1,500 were injured.

Nine former Kyrgyz top officials, including deposed president Kurmanbek Bakiyev's son and brother, were charged with murder and abuse of office.

Four people on the list - former deputy security service chief Daniyar Dunganov, former deputy defense minister Baktybek Kalyev, former interior minister Moldomusa Kongantiyev and former presidential advisor on defense and security Elmurza Satybaldiyev are currently under arrest.

The other five, including ex-prime minister Daniyar Usenov and former chief of national security Murat Sutalinov, were charged in absentia and put on the country's wanted list.

The deposed president was not included in the list, though he has been charged in absentia with the murder of two or more persons and abuse of office.

The interim government said the president resigned on April 15 when he fled Kyrgyzstan for Kazakhstan. Bakiyev has since taken refuge in Belarus.

RIA Novosti

The upper chamber of the Russian parliament, the Federation Council, ratified on Wednesday a deal with Ukraine to extend the lease on a Russian naval base.

The memorandum on granting Belarus the status of a dialogue partner in the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) will be signed on Wednesday in the capital Minsk, a Belarusian Foreign Ministry spokesman said.

The Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) will discuss Russian-Georgian relations and Holodomor at its spring session.