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St. Petersburg students give Ukraine consul model lighthouse

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ST. PETERSBURG, February 7 (RIA Novosti) - Students in Russia's second largest city came up with an unusual "present" for Ukraine's consul general Tuesday in an original twist to a recent spat between the two countries over Russia's naval facilities on the Black Sea.

Students in St. Petersburg presented Mykola Rudko with a dummy 2.5-meter lighthouse, thereby "commemorating" a move made by Ukrainian officials to seize a lighthouse belonging to the Russian Black Sea Fleet. Many Russian politicians saw the step as a response to a dispute between the neighboring countries over natural gas prices.

Sergei Verevkin, an organizer of the action, said the 'gift' was the reaction of the "Anti-Orange Student Brotherhood" to the situation around the lighthouse in the Crimean city port of Yalta.

"We were offended with the statement of Ukraine's 'Orange Student Brotherhood' that the Yalta lighthouse belongs to Ukraine. If they need the lighthouse, they can have it," Verevkin said.

Russia's Black Sea Fleet is using a range of facilities in Ukraine's Crimean autonomy under a 1997 agreement that divided the Soviet Black Sea Fleet.

Verevkin also said Rudko had come out to face the protesters carrying the lighthouse. He asked them to take the lighthouse away and said the whole action was "farce."

"We left the lighthouse five meters away from the consulate's fence," he said.

Relations between Russia and Ukraine have deteriorated since the 'orange revolution' swept Viktor Yushchenko to power in 2004 in a move that many in Russia considered to be funded by the West.

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