#3 non-English utf-8 characters in Contacts list show as ??? wh

[Sergei Zuyev]

Hello,
I am under Mandriva Linux, kdepim-kmail-3.5.9-9mdv2008.1
kdepim-kitchensync-3.5.9-9mdv2008.1

Description of problem:

The new or modified contacts on my O2 XDA Orbit 2 (which is the same hardware
as HTC Touch Cruise 2) which have non-English (Russian) characters in utf8
encoding appear as ??? in Kmail Contacts list after the sync. This does NOT
happen when the new version of a contact entry is on Kmail: syncing TO Orbit-2
make it appear in the PDA's contacts list normally. I am using LEng keyboard
program to enter Cyrillic. I verified that it is indeed unicode which is
used. I initially thought it could be this program to blame, but it seems
unlikely to be the reason because the calendar entries get syncronised
without a problem both ways whatever language Russian or English they are
written.

How can I debug this, please? Kitchensync interface does not seem to be very
informative...

Thank you in advance!