NEWSBRIEFS (06/23/96)

NEWSBRIEFS

Ukraine restores Soviet-era border zone

KYIV - Parliament restored a Soviet-era border control zone with special powers for police to crack down on attempts by illegal migrants to travel to the West, local media reported on June 18. Deputies approved amendments to laws giving police and border guards authority to check individuals "giving cause for suspicion" and authorizing them to use weapons more often.

"This law allows for more thorough document checks," People's Deputy Yuriy Kryzhsky, one of the measure's sponsors, told reporters. "Most people trying to enter Ukraine or pass through to the West remain for a time in border areas to check them out." Soviet border regions had control zones up to 30 miles wide where foreigners needed special permission to visit. Controls were toughest on western frontiers.

Last year, 9,787 people, mostly from Southeast Asia, were caught trying to cross Ukraine's western border to Poland, Slovakia and Hungary. Numbers are about the same this year, with groups of Kurds and Indian nationals stopped most recently. Last week, border guards discovered 42 illegal Chinese migrants in a sealed refrigerator truck abandoned near the Slovak border.

About 58,000 border violators have been arrested since independence in 1991, according to the border guards service. Of these, approximately half were illegal migrants. (Reuters)

Grachev, "power" officials sacked

MOSCOW - Just days after appointing former Gen. Aleksandr Lebed as overlord of Russia's "power ministries" (Interior, Federal Security Service (FSB), Defense and Presidential Security Service), Russian President Boris Yeltsin fired Defense Minister Pavel Grachev, First Deputy Prime Minister Oleg Soskovets, FSB chief Mikhail Barsukov and Kremlin security chief Aleksandr Korzhakov, ITAR-TASS reported on June 19 and 20. Mr. Soskovets, who supervised the defense industry, is considered to be an ally of Mr. Korzhakov. The latter three are seen as hard-liners, opposed to market reforms and strong backers of the war in Chechnya. They were also against holding the presidential election. Mr. Yeltsin said that it is time to "strengthen and renew" his team with "fresh people." He said he was constantly being criticized because of these three men, and emphasized that he had never taken orders from Mr. Korzhakov. The president also criticized the "power ministries" for "taking too much for themselves, while giving too little."

Gen. Grachev, whose dismissal had been sought by Mr. Lebed and others for many months, has been blamed for contravening Mr. Yeltsin's orders regarding the Chechnya war on a number of occasions. (OMRI Daily Digest)

Chornobyl out of fuel money

KYIV - Officials at the nuclear power station that was the site of the world's worst nuclear disaster 10 years ago said on June 13 they had no money to buy Russian fuel rods and may soon have to cut capacity or shut down.

"The station could soon be forced to stop. This could also affect safety, as you cannot operate reactors by shifting their capacity up or down," station spokesman Valeriy Idelson said last week. Mr. Idelson said the plant was owed $50 million in unpaid electricity bills. Two reactors still functioning at the plant produce 5 percent of Ukraine's electricity. Officials said earlier this year that shortages of fuel could shut down the plant, but Russia maintained supplies and allowed it to keep operating.

Western countries have promised aid and credits worth $3 billion to enable Ukraine to meet President Leonid Kuchma's commitment to shut down Chornobyl by the year 2000. But after largely unproductive talks this month with wealthy Group of Seven (G-7) countries, Ukraine's top negotiator, Minister for Environmental Protection Yuriy Kostenko, said it might reconsider the promise. He said Kyiv needed $840 million immediately - to complete construction of two reactors at other plants that would be required to compensate for power now produced at Chornobyl.

Under a 1994 accord signed with Russia and the United States, Ukraine is due to receive about $1 billion in nuclear fuel from Moscow in exchange for giving up its share of ex-Soviet nuclear weapons. But Chornobyl was not included in the agreement as the fuel required for its RBMK reactors differs significantly from Ukraine's four other stations. Mr. Idelson said Russia rejected a Ukrainian proposal to extend the deal to Chornobyl and was "linking the issue to political considerations," e.g. conclusion of a friendship and cooperation treaty still unsigned nearly five years after the collapse of the Soviet Union. (Reuters)

Kyrgyzstan, Ukraine sign friendship treaty

KYIV - Kyrgyz President Askar Akayev signed a treaty on friendship and cooperation with President Leonid Kuchma, Ukrainian Radio reported on June 19. The two presidents also signed a number of other agreements on economic cooperation and academic exchanges. In a meeting with Ukrainian Parliament Chairman Oleksander Moroz, Mr. Akayev discussed problems facing the 90,000-strong Ukrainian diaspora in Kyrgyzstan. He said that a Ukrainian department would soon be established at the national university. (OMRI Daily Digest/Reuters)

Ukraine to receive more credits

KYIV - The International Monetary Fund will allow Ukraine to draw the second monthly installment, worth some $100 million, from its $867 million stand-by loan at the end of the month, an RFE-RL correspondent reported on June 19. The same day, Agence France Presse reported that the European Commission will lend Ukraine 200 million ecus ($246 million) for economic reforms. The credit will be released in two tranches if Ukraine continues with its economic reforms and the shutdown of the Chornobyl nuclear power station. ITAR-TASS reported that the World Bank will also give Ukraine a $250 million credit to reconstruct its coal industry. (OMRI Daily Digest)

| Home Page |