RUSSIA: Ukraine's prime minister Julia Tymoshenko has cancelled an official visit to Russia at the last moment, saying she is too busy organising the spring harvest.
Ms Tymoshenko shot to international fame in December as the glamorous sidekick to Viktor Yushchenko, leader of Ukraine's pro-democracy Orange Revolution.
She clashed with Moscow after accusing Russia of interfering in the December election process. In return, Russia issued fraud charges against her and forwarded her name to Interpol.
This week the two sides were due to patch up their differences, with Ms Tymoshenko agreeing to make an official visit, and Russia withdrawing its Interpol request.
But on Tuesday Russia's hardline chief prosecutor Vladimir Ustinov said she remained on Moscow's own wanted list, raising the possibility she might be arrested on arrival.
This sparked a new diplomatic row, and a further drop in the temperature between the two former allies. "On the eve of the prime minister's visit to Russia, the prosecutor is making such statements - it is an international scandal," said Kiev's economy minister, Serhiy Teryokhin.
Officially, Kiev said that the trip is being cancelled "because of the harvest. She has to concentrate on these questions".
Certainly Ms Tymoshenko has long prided herself on her connections to the countryside: throughout the Orange Revolution she wore her hair in peasant-style braids to appeal to the farmers of the great Steppe.
"The harvest, that's the official reason, but the prime minister does not actually go out to plant," said Olena Prytula, editor of Ukrainian Pravda, Kiev's leading news agency.
In fact, it seems hell hath no fury like a prime minister scorned. "Any harm that people do to her she will never forget it," said Ms Prytula. The row is likely to deepen the divide between Kiev and Moscow and accelerate Ukraine's search for friends in the West.