NEWSBRIEFS (09/07/97)

NEWSBRIEFS

Suspect arrested in Odesa editor's murder

ODESA - Police arrested the alleged murderer of Borys Dervianko, editor-in-chief of the daily Vecherniaya Odessa, on September 1, according to an UNIAN report which did not release the accused's name, but said he confessed to being a professional killer. Mr. Dervianko was shot on his way to work on August 12. In another local story, the newspaper Den reported that six armed individuals were arrested, foiling an alleged attempt on the life of Odesa Mayor Eduard Gurvits on August 28. (Eastern Economist)

Publisher seeks international protection

KYIV - Mykhailo Brodsky, president of the Dendi currency exchange operations and 75 percent owner of the Kievskiye Viedomosti newspaper confirmed at a press conference on September 1 that "several international organizations have promised me assistance against harassment from the Ukrainian authorities." Dendi operations have had severe restrictions applied to them in the past month. Mr. Brodsky alleges that political persecution against his businesses began after he was given ultimatums to tone down his newspaper's criticism of the government. At the September 1 press conference, co-sponsored by Rukh, Mr. Brodsky mentioned that the U.S. Embassy's first secretary paid him a visit and asked to be informed of the Dendi situation. (Eastern Economist)

U.N. pledges assistance to Crimean Tatars

KYIV - Upon arriving for a three-day visit to Ukraine, the United Nations' high commissioner for refugees, Sadako Ogata, said her agency would provide $2.5 million to assist Crimean Tatars in their efforts to integrate into Ukrainian society. Ms. Ogata made the announcement after meeting with Ukrainian Foreign Affairs Minister Hennadii Udovenko. The U.N. official was scheduled to meet with President Leonid Kuchma in Kyiv on September 4, and to travel to Crimea the day after. For his part, Mr. Udovenko promised to ease restrictions on Tatars who have returned to the peninsula and are seeking Ukrainian citizenship. Crimean Tatar leaders assert that 70,000 of the estimated 250,000 Crimean Tatars who returned from exile in Uzbekistan and Kazakstan to the southern Ukrainian region still have not obtained official status, which Ukrainian law stipulates can be granted only after a five-year residency. Soviet dictator Joseph Stalin had collectively blamed the Tatars for collaboration with the Nazis and deported virtually all to Central Asia and far eastern Russia. Ukrainian government statistics suggest that since the dissolution of the Soviet Union, about 1,400 refugees have arrived in Ukraine from war-torn regions such as Georgia and Chechnya. (Reuters)

List of Ukraine's top enterprises published

KYIV - The Ukrainian Investment Newspaper, assisted by the U.S.-based consulting company Deloitte & Touche has published a list of Ukraine's top-100 companies in terms of profit, market capitalization and export sales for 1996. The top five profit makers were UkrGazProm, PromInvestBank, the Zaporizhia Atomic Energy Station (AES), the Rivne AES and the Prydniprovskyi Oil Pipelines Co. The top five market capitalizers: DniproEnergo, Zaporizhia AES, KyivEnergo, UkrNafta and the Ordzhonikidze mining plant. The top five exporters: the Illich Mariupil Steel Plant, AzovStal, ZaporizhStal, the Mykolaiv Alumina Plant and the Odesa Port Plant. The InfoBank agency noted that since unconfirmed data was not used, UkrSpetsExport (the state-controlled arms dealer) was not included in the list. (Eastern Economist)

Alberta oil firm's production disappointing

CALGARY, Alberta - Epic Energy Inc., the Calgary-based petroleum company, announced that oil production at its Crimean shallow wells has averaged 35 barrels per day, well below 125 bpd expectations, and that personnel would be let go as a result, according to a Ukrainian News report of September 1. However, Epic Chief Executive Officer Ronald Cormick said that KrymTexasNafta, the company's Ukrainian subsidiary has drilled five new wells in the peninsula's Aktash field and that a higher priced sales contract will be negotiated shortly as a result of favorable drilling reports. Mr. Cormick said he also hopes to embark on exploratory drilling and development of deeper, larger, oil and gas-condensate deposits in the region. (Eastern Economist)

Ukrainian school draws Russian protests

DONETSK - Ethnic Russian residents of this eastern Ukrainian industrial city staged protests on September 1 against the opening of the first Ukrainian-language school in the city, the Interfax agency reported. Dozens of activists picketed the school to protest what they called the "forcible Ukrainization" of their mainly Russian-speaking region. (RFE/RL Newsline)

"End of romanticism" in CIS relations

MOSCOW - Russia's newly appointed minister for cooperation with CIS countries, Anatolii Adamishin, said on September 2 that the "era of romanticism" in Russia's relations with other CIS states is over and that it is time to take a more pragmatic approach, particularly in economic relations, RFE/RL's Moscow bureau reported. Mr. Adamishin conceded that the vast majority of the 1,300 inter-CIS agreements have not been implemented. (RFE/RL Newsline)

Lazarenko elected head of Yednist faction

KYIV - Former Prime Minister Pavlo Lazarenko, removed from office in July amid allegations of corruption and criticism for inaction on reform, was elected to lead the Yednist (Unity) faction in the Parliament where he is a deputy, on August 28. Eleven members of the faction have since split off, and now only 20 deputies remain. Mr. Lazarenko has alleged that members of the Kuchma administration and of the government pressured the 11 who quit. On September 2, the Interfax agency quoted President Kuchma's criticism of Mr. Lazarenko, saying the former premier should analyze his year as the Cabinet's senior member. (RFE/RL Newsline, Eastern Economist)

Floods in Crimea, Chernivtsi, Odesa

KYIV - Heavy rainfall has caused flooding in the Saki region of Crimea, where over 300 buildings were inundated, and on September 2, President Leonid Kuchma requested that Defense Minister Oleksander Kuzmuk, Emergencies Minister Valerii Kalchenko and officials from the Ministry of Agriculture mobilize an assistance effort. Mr. Kalchenko recently visited the stricken region. Also hit have been the Putylskyi and Starozhynetskyi districts of the Chernivtsi Oblast, where 26 settlements were deprived of electricity. As a result of torrential rains, 86 houses were evacuated on August 28, in Dolynka, a village in the Odesa Oblast. No fatalities were reported by the region's civil defense officials. (Eastern Economist)

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