NEWSBRIEFS (01/03/99)

NEWSBRIEFS

Duma ratifies Russian-Ukrainian treaty

MOSCOW - By a vote of 244 to 30, the lower house of the Russian Parliament on December 25 ratified the Russian-Ukrainian Treaty on Friendship, Cooperation and Partnership that had been signed in Kyiv in May 1997. Officials in both capitals greeted the move, with Russian Foreign Affairs Minister Igor Ivanov saying that the Duma's ratification of this treaty and the accord with Belarus "will become a step toward the unification of the three Slavic nations." (RFE/RL Newsline)

Nationalists demand Tkachenko's ouster

KYIV - Ten nationalist parties on December 21 demanded that Verkhovna Rada Chairman Oleksander Tkachenko be sacked for appealing during his trip last week to Moscow that Ukraine integrate with Russia, ITAR-TASS reported. Mr. Tkachenko said in Moscow that Ukraine must integrate more closely with Russia by creating a "common defense doctrine and economic space" and sharing a "single currency." Mr. Tkachenko told journalists in Kyiv on December 21 that when he was in Moscow he was expressing the Ukrainian Parliament's point of view, not only his own. "I express my opinions as head of the Verkhovna Rada, as a state official. I have said some time ago that I am not the first [-ranking official], but neither am I the second," Ukrainian Television quoted him as saying. (RFE/RL Newsline)

Yeltsin, Lukashenka sign new "union" ...

MOSCOW - Russian President Boris Yeltsin and Belarusian President Alyaksandr Lukashenka on December 25 signed a series of agreements that they said pointed toward a new "union of Russia and Belarus," Russian agencies reported. The documents call for a staged integration of the economic and political systems of the two countries over the next year, public discussion and a possible referendum on union, and opportunities for citizens of each country to participate in the political life of the other. (RFE/RL Newsline)

... but many uncertain of its meaning

MOSCOW - Belarusian President Alyaksandr Lukashenka suggested that the Russian-Belarusian accords pointed to a rapid reunification of the two former Soviet republics, a position supported by Russian Communist Party chief Gennadii Zyuganov. But other Russian officials were much more cautious. Russian Foreign Affairs Minister Igor Ivanov noted that the documents signed were "a declaration, not a treaty of further unification." And President Boris Yeltsin's own spokesman Dmitrii Yakushkin said that no one was talking about a single army or a single budget for the two, still sovereign states. But CIS Executive Secretary Boris Berezovskii suggested the new agreements ended what he said was an "unnatural" relationship between Russia and Belarus and could be adopted by other former Soviet republics as well. (RFE/RL Newsline)

Lukashenka dwells on future union

MIENSK - During a live two-hour television appearance on December 27, President Alyaksandr Lukashenka presented his vision of the Belarus-Russia Union. He said the union should have supranational power and administration bodies, including a legislative body and a government. Mr. Lukashenka insisted that the two countries "will remain sovereign states," but that the union leadership should be empowered with such functions as the coordination of foreign policy, defense, customs service and border troops. He added that privatization should be carried out independently by each union state. He did not rule out a common president "if a presidential form of government is chosen"; at the same time he denied reports that he is preparing to run for the Russian presidency. (RFE/RL Newsline)

Belarusian opposition protests union

MIENSK - Police arrested some 10 demonstrators in Miensk on December 25 during an opposition protest against the Belarus-Russia declaration on a single union state signed by Presidents Alyaksandr Lukashenka and Boris Yeltsin in Moscow the same day, Reuters and RFE/RL's Belarusian Service reported. The demonstrators, who carried white-red-white flags, paralyzed traffic in the center of the Belarusian capital for some 15 minutes. Two protesters have been hospitalized after their arrest. Meanwhile, Stanislau Shushkevich, Mechyslau Hryb and Syamyon Sharetski, three former speakers of the Supreme Soviet dissolved by President Lukashenka in 1996, denounced the signing of the union declaration as a "crime against the Belarusian nation." They said that "Lukashenka is afraid of free elections. That is why he is going to surrender our country's independence, in the hope of acquiring supreme power in the united state." RFE/RL Newsline)

Fewer Ukrainians, and less healthy, too

KYIV - In seven years of independence, the population of Ukraine has decreased by almost 2 million. According to the Ministry of Health, in the next several years the population will decrease even further to reach 48 million in 2002. Health Minister Andrii Serdiuk drew particular attention to the dramatic increase of death rates among men. At present, there are three to five times more men age 18 to 60 dying every year in Ukraine than women in that age bracket. According to the ministry's statistics, more than 6 million Ukrainians suffer from cardiac disease, more than 1.2 million have psychological defects, another 1.2 million are disabled, 800,000 suffer from alcoholism, 700,000 suffer from tuberculosis, 300,000 are diabetics and 120,000 are invalids from birth. Dr. Serdiuk stressed that all these figures "significantly affect" the average life expectancy and indicate a further worsening of the demographic situation in the country. (Eastern Economist)

Rada delays adopting 1999 budget

KYIV - The Verkhovna Rada on December 25 postponed debate on the government's 1999 draft budget after deputies failed to agree on the projected deficit of 1 percent of GDP. The draft budget provides for revenues of 23.4 billion hrv ($6.8 billion U.S.) and expenditures of 24.6 billion hrv, with annual inflation forecast at 19 percent. Finance Minister Ihor Mitiukov, who presented the budget to lawmakers, argued that with Ukraine's economy expected to decline by 1 percent in 1999 it is unrealistic to count on revenues and expenditures as high as the Parliament wanted. Meanwhile, President Leonid Kuchma on December 26 said he will leave lawmakers without their salaries unless they pass the 1999 draft budget. "This is for sure. This cannot go on like this," ITAR-TASS quoted him as saying. (RFE/RL Newsline)

Rada approves Crimea's Constitution

KYIV - By a vote of 230 to 67, the Verkhovna Rada on December 23 approved a new Constitution for Crimea, Ukraine's only autonomous republic. The Constitution allows Crimea to have its own government and legislature and permits the republic to independently sign foreign trade deals. It also stipulates that all taxes and duties collected on Crimean territory are to be directed to the republic's budget. Over the past six years, Crimean lawmakers have submitted four constitutional drafts, but all were either rejected or approved only partially due to what Kyiv's parliamentarians considered separatist provisions. The latest draft was approved after deputies had inserted a separate provision that bans Crimea from approving legislation not in accord with Ukrainian law. (RFE/RL Newsline)

Crimean Tatars demonstrate for rights

SYMFEROPOL - Some 1,000 Crimean Tatars demonstrated in Symferopol on December 21 to protest the adoption of the Crimean Constitution in its current version, Ukrainian Television reported. They called on the Ukrainian Verkhovna Rada not to approve the Constitution until it incorporates provisions that would guarantee Tatar representation in the Crimean legislature and local government. (RFE/RL Newsline)

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