cannot set true mysql encoding with ejabberd-1.1.2

I'm using ejabberd-1.1.2 + mysql-4.1 (OpenSuSE 10.0). When I write some entries on russian language to my roster, some of them become distorted.
I think, the problem is of wrong database session encoding while speaking to the database. I know, that in mysql, I am to execute "set names utf8" in the beginning of the session, but I don't know, how to do it with ejabberd daemon.
Please, tell me how to solve my character distortion in roster.