NEWSBRIEFS (03/02/97)

NEWSBRIEFS

Kuchma blames Russia for poor relations

KYIV - In an interview published in Nezavisimaya Gazeta on February 20, President Leonid Kuchma blamed Russia for the poor state of Russian-Ukrainian relations. Mr. Kuchma said he was optimistic when Yevgenii Primakov was appointed Russia's foreign affairs minister, but that since then there has been no improvement in relations and "the biased, prejudiced attitude toward Ukraine has intensified." He said Russia still views Ukraine as a constituent part, or at least within the Russian sphere of influence. As a result, there has been a cooling in economic ties and the free-trade agreement has not been fully implemented. President Kuchma said the Russian presidential campaign and the "political games" in Russia had prevented the signing of a treaty on friendship and cooperation with Ukraine. The criticism is President Kuchma's strongest public statement yet, Reuters reported. (OMRI Daily Digest, Reuters, Embassy of Ukraine in the U.S.)

ROC excommunicates Filaret, Yakunin

MOSCOW - The Russian Orthodox Church's High Clerical Council resolved on February 20 to excommunicate former Metropolitan Filaret (Mikhail Denysenko) and former priest and Duma deputy Gleb Yakunin, NTV reported. Filaret, defrocked in 1992, is now patriarch of the independent Ukrainian Orthodox Church - Kyiv Patriarchate, the second largest Church in Ukraine. Mr. Yakunin was defrocked in 1993 for ignoring a ban on priests running for election to the Russian Parliament. Mr. Yakunin said he believes the move was revenge for his charge that senior Orthodox priests had cooperated with the KGB during the Soviet era. The council opened its sessions in Moscow on February 18. (OMRI Daily Digest)

Romania drops territorial claims

KYIV - On February 26 - a day after a Romanian delegation arrived in Kyiv for talks on the Romanian-Ukrainian basic treaty - the Romania's president, Emil Constantinescu, stated that Romania has no territorial claims on Ukraine. He noted that Romania is prepared to recognize Ukraine's current borders and its ownership of Serpent Island, an outcrop with potentially valuable energy reserves around it. Furthermore, he said Romania is interested in signing a bilateral treaty with Ukraine as soon as possible. The Romanian president made these statements in an interview with the TV news program "Pisliamova." He added that the Romania-Ukraine-Poland triangle has good potential for increased trade and cultural relations. Ukrainian First Vice Minister for Foreign Affairs Antin Buteiko had said he was optimistic that talks in Kyiv with the Romanian delegation would yield results, pointing out that Bucharest needs to conclude a comprehensive bilateral treaty with Ukraine to improve its chances of early admission into NATO. A week earlier, French President Jacques Chirac had said during a visit to Romania that he backs the country's early entry into NATO along with Hungary, Poland and the Czech Republic, but he called for quick action on Romania's border with Ukraine. (Interfax-Ukraine, Embassy of Ukraine in the U.S., OMRI Daily Digest, Reuters)

President creates Political Council

KYIV - President Leonid Kuchma has signed a decree setting up a presidential Political Council, it was reported on February 21. The council is an advisory body whose task is to ensure that the views of the country's political forces are taken into account when state policy is being decided. The members of the council are leaders of nine centrist political parties. Former Vice Prime Minister Oleksander Yemets has been appointed secretary of the council as well as presidential adviser for political and legal issues. Mr. Yemets is one of the leaders of the pro-presidential centrist bloc New Ukraine. (OMRI Daily Digest)

Zviahilskyi's immunity reinstated

KYIV - By a vote of 253-19, the Verkhovna Rada on February 12 reinstated parliamentary immunity for former Prime Minister Yukhym Zviahilskyi. Mr. Zviahilskyi had taken refuge in Israel in 1994 after he was accused of embezzling $25 million in public funds. Two years ago Israel had turned down Ukraine's request for extradition of the former prime minister during the Kravchuk administration. Mr. Zviahilskyi was elected in 1994 to the Verkhovna Rada as a deputy from Donetsk. According to Petro Sheiko, who headed a special committee that investigated the case and who met with Mr. Zviahilskyi in Israel, the Ukrainian Parliament's decision now gives Mr. Zviahilskyi two months to return to Ukraine and to cooperate with the Procurator General's Office. Charges against the former prime minister include siphoning off state funds through illegal sales of 200,000 tons of aviation fuel and foreign exchange operations involving a bank set up by his wife. Mr. Zviahilskyi has denied the charges and said he is ready to return to Ukraine as long as his safety is guaranteed. Ukrainian officials say Mr. Zviahilskyi, who has spent two and a half years in Israel, has acquired an Israeli passport, but he denies such reports. (Respublika, Reuters, OMRI Daily Digest)

Ukrainian program to attract investors

KYIV - Ukraine's Prime Minister Pavlo Lazarenko announced a government program to attract $3.7 billion to $4 billion of foreign investment, UNIAN reported on February 19. The tax burden will be reduced, and the state's share in privatized enterprises will not exceed 26 percent (except for strategic facilities, of which the government will retain 51 percent ownership). Ukraine has so far managed to attract $1.5 billion in direct foreign investment. Meanwhile, pressure from directors of enterprises has led the government to overturn a resolution that banned enterprises from writing off mutual debts, Intelnews reported on February 19. The ban was introduced in January because writing off inter-enterprise debts had led to a decline in budget revenue. (OMRI Daily Digest)

Lack of funds may alter Chornobyl's fate

KYIV - Environment Minister Yurii Kostenko said Ukraine may reconsider closing the Chornobyl nuclear plant if the West does not finance the building of two new reactors to replace it, UNIAN and ITAR-TASS reported on February 20. But a panel of advisors to the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development concluded that the financing of new reactors at Rivne and Khmelnytskyi could not be approved on economic grounds, Agence France Presse reported on February 19. The environmental group Greenpeace called on the EBRD and the European Council to withdraw from negotiations over completion of the partially built reactors. (OMRI Daily Digest)

Parties choose electoral priorities, allies

KYIV - Ukrainian Communist Party leader Petro Symonenko, speaking at his party's closed session, said the Communists would form an electoral alliance with other leftist forces, such as the Socialists and the Peasants' Party, Ukrainian television reported on February 15. The same day, the centrist pro-presidential movement New Ukraine held its fifth congress in Kyiv. The leader of the movement, presidential administration head Yevhen Kushnariov, warned against the growing influence of the left, Russian television reported. Mr. Kushnariov said New Ukraine considers Russia and other CIS countries Ukraine's longtime partners. Verkhovna Rada elections are scheduled for 1998; the presidential election follows in 1999. (OMRI Daily Digest)

Belarusian youth march against president

MIENSK - Over 3,000 people, mostly students, held an unauthorized demonstration on February 14 in downtown Miensk to protest President Alyaksandr Lukashenka's authoritarian rule and his pro-Russian policies, international agencies reported. The demonstrators delivered a petition to the embassies of some Western countries, criticizing the restoration of the "Soviet empire." The rally ended outside the television tower, where police dispersed the crowd with tear gas and truncheons. At least 30 demonstrators were reported arrested. Meanwhile, the Institute of Sociology of the state-funded Academy of Science reported the results of a recent public opinion poll: 83 percent of respondents support Mr. Lukashenka's pro-Russian policies and 55 percent back his way of handling corruption. (OMRI Daily Digest)

Black Sea cooperation group meets

ISTANBUL - Foreign ministers and other high-ranking officials from the 11 member-states of the Black Sea Economic Cooperation (BSEC) organization met in Istanbul on February 7 to discuss the creation of a free trade zone, Agence France Presse reported. The group includes Albania, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Bulgaria, Georgia, Greece, Moldova, Romania, Russia, Turkey and Ukraine. Turkish Foreign Minister Tansu Ciller used the meeting to announce that the planned Black Sea Trade and Development Bank, to be based in Thessaloniki, will have $300 million in contributions from member-states at its disposal. She also expressed her hope that in the future the BSEC will be "integrated into Europe." (OMRI Daily Digest)

Report released on economic crime

KYIV- There were 61,000 economic crimes recorded in Ukraine last year, according to the Ministry of Internal Affairs. As a result, 37,000 criminal cases have been launched. Many of the offenses involved trucking, agricultural complex, or oil and gas refining enterprises. During 1996 there were about 12,000 cases recorded of theft by government officials, which marked an 11 percent increase over 1995. Of these cases, about half reportedly involved large or very large sums of money. Charges were brought in 1,167 cases involving financial machinations, up from 517 in 1995. There were 4,900 crimes recorded in the energy sector; 3,900 crimes recorded in finance and banking; and 859 crimes involving foreign economic activity. There were 1,000 cases filed against alcohol production or trading firms; 1,176 cases of production or sale of non-genuine alcohol. A total of 650 people were charged with currency forgery; nine illegal money printing facilities were uncovered; a total of 23 billion hrv, $110,000 U.S., 8,500 DM and 45 million RUR in fake banknotes were removed from circulation. (Infobank)

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