NEWSBRIEFS (08/02/98)

NEWSBRIEFS

Trade on agenda of Gore-Kirienko talks

MOSCOW - Before talks with U.S. Vice-President Al Gore on July 24, Prime Minister Sergei Kirienko called for the U.S. to grant Russia most-favored-nation (MFN) trade status, Russian news agencies reported. "The classification of Russia as a country with a non-market economy does not meet current realities and leads to the imposition of unjustifiably high anti-dumping duties on a number of key export items," Mr. Kirienko said. ITAR-TASS quoted an unidentified source in the Russian-U.S. Commission on Economic and Technological Cooperation as saying that Vice-President Gore has agreed to support Russia's demand for permanent MFN status. Meanwhile, Mr. Gore told the Russian delegation that he and President Bill Clinton are "absolutely committed to deepening [U.S.-Russian] relationships." (RFE/RL Newsline)

France to expand ties with Ukraine

KYIV - French Foreign Affairs Minister Hubert Vedrine said in Kyiv on July 24 that France wants to expand ties with Ukraine both on a bilateral basis and within the sphere of European policies, Ukrainian Radio reported. Mr. Vedrine stressed that France "is convinced of Ukraine's strategic role in Europe" and pledges to support Ukraine's bid to become an associate member of the European Union. According to Reuters, the French minister backed Ukrainian efforts to win a much-needed $2 billion loan from the International Monetary Fund. President Kuchma and Mr. Vedrine agreed that during French President Jacques Chirac's visit to Ukraine in September the two countries will create a new mechanism for top-level bilateral consultations. (RFE/RL Newsline)

Parliament passes budget resolution

KYIV - The Verkhovna Rada concluded its session on July 24 by passing a 1999 budget resolution, Ukrainian Television reported. The legislators granted the government the right to set a budget deficit, providing it can find funds to cover all social programs. During its three-month session the Parliament rejected two economic presidential decrees and failed to consider another 12, thus allowing them to go into force automatically. Another 17 decrees signed by President Leonid Kuchma in June will go into force if lawmakers fail to veto or consider them upon reconvening on September 1. (RFE/RL Newsline)

Belarusian newspaper warned on spelling

MIENSK - The Belarusian State Press Committee has warned the Belarusian-language biweekly Nasha Niva not to use the old-style Belarusian spelling, which was banned by the Soviet authorities in 1933. The newspaper, launched in Vilnius in 1991 by editor Syarhey Dubavets, uses that spelling, which, Mr. Dubavets says, is less Russified than the spelling rules introduced under Joseph Stalin's orders. "The 1933 language reform had a repressive rather than literary character," Mr. Dubavets told Reuters on July 22. The press committee maintains that Nasha Niva is disobeying Belarusian law by not adopting the "common literary language." The Higher Economic Court, which banned the opposition newspaper Svaboda last year, is to consider the committee's complaint against Nasha Niva on August 12. (RFE/RL Newsline)

Boeing VP visits PivdenMash factory

WASHINGTON - Boeing Vice-President Jim Albo visited the Dnipropetrovsk-based PivdenMash engineering plant on July 23. Mr. Albo inspected the factory's Zenit rocket launchers, which will be used in the Sea Launch project involving Pivdennyi, Boeing, Russia's Energiya, Norway's Kwaerner Maritime, and Ukraine's PivdenMash and KBU. Mr. Albo told journalists that 20 orders have been received for satellite launches under the Sea Launch project. He further disclosed that, during his talks with Pivdennyi officials, cooperation under the Sea Launch project as well as the possibility of using the Zenit rockets to launch satellites from the Baikonur aerospace complex were addressed. Boeing holds a 40 percent stake in the Sea Launch project. (Embassy of Ukraine)

Groups file challenge to religion law

MOSCOW - Representatives of several religious organizations have filed an appeal with the Constitutional Court of the Russian Federation challenging the law on freedom of conscience and religious organizations that took effect last September, Nezavisimaya Gazeta reported on July 16. Duma Deputies Valerii Borschev of the Yabloko faction and Galina Starovoitova have expressed support for the court appeal, which charges that the law contradicts both Russian and international legal norms. One of the most controversial aspects of the religion law requires groups to prove they have existed in Russia for at least 15 years in order to be registered with the authorities as "religious organizations." The law restricts the activities of groups that do not meet that condition or other registration requirements. Article 14 of the Russian Constitution states that "religious associations are separate from the state and equal before the law." (RFE/RL Newsline)

Poland, Ukraine to fight sex slave industry

KYIV - Poland and Ukraine agreed on July 16 to cooperate in fighting prostitution and sex slave trafficking to the West, Reuters reported. "The Mafia has become engaged in [the trafficking of women]. ... We must take preventive measures together," a Ukrainian Internal Affairs Ministry representative commented. According to the International Organization for Migration, more than 100,000 Ukrainian women are being forced to work as prostitutes in the West. (RFE/RL Newsline)

President briefed on road construction

KYIV - Reconstruction of the Khreschatyk, Kyiv's main thoroughfare, will cost 30.9 million hrv and will be finished by August 15, in time for the Ukrainian Independence Day parade, Kyiv Administrator Oleksander Omelchenko told President Leonid Kuchma and Verkhovna Rada Chairman Oleksander Tkachenko during a briefing on the progress of the road work. (Eastern Economist)

Unemployment levels rising in 1998

KYIV - The June unemployment level in Ukraine was 2.9 percent, up from 2.77 percent in April. The highest unemployment level is in Lviv Oblast with 70,500 people officially out of work; Donetsk Oblast has 62,800 on its rolls and Dnipropetrovsk 46,900. Unemployment assistance was provided to 473,558 people and averaged 39.39 hrv. (Eastern Economist)